UN High-Level Advisory Final Report: Governing AI for Humanity
Issued September 2024
Summary
This final report highlights the urgency of global AI governance. While AI offers transformative benefits—scientific progress, sustainable development, and economic inclusion—its risks are similarly significant, including bias, disinformation, surveillance, and geopolitical imbalances. The report proposes a networked and inclusive international governance architecture rooted in human rights and international law, to harness AI for global good and mitigate fragmentation, power concentration, and digital divides.
What is it about
An AI system is the core technology discussed throughout the report. It is defined as a machine-based system that uses input to generate outputs such as predictions, content, or recommendations. These systems are designed to operate with varying levels of autonomy and can influence real or virtual environments..
Who it is for
The report is for Member States, UN bodies, intergovernmental and regional organizations, private-sector leaders, researchers, civil society actors, and other stakeholders engaged in shaping responsible AI governance.
Related work
This final report builds on the UN AI Advisory Body's months of work, including extensive global consultations, and the publication of an interim report in December 2023.
Recommendations 1 & 2 in the report relate to the following two new AI governance bodies Independent International Scientific Panel on AI and Global Dialogue on AI Governance.
Key Takeaways
Proposes a globally networked AI governance framework grounded in international law and the SDGs, designed to be inclusive, adaptive, and interoperable.
Outlines seven institutional innovations to strengthen global coordination, cooperation and reduce fragmentation.
Identifies critical governance gaps in representation, coordination, and implementation—particularly affecting the Global South.
Highlights urgent risks including concentration of power, deepening digital divides, disinformation, biased algorithms, and militarized AI applications.
Reccomends developing AI capacity by creating a global fund to bridge the AI divide and establishing a collaborative network of centers to provide expertise, compute power, and training data.
Calls for a global social contract on AI, ensuring that governance is public-interest-driven, participatory, and anticipatory in light of AI's cross-sectoral impacts.
© United Nations AI Advisory Body (2024)
Warum ist diese Anleitung wichtig?
"Ensuring that AI realises its potential for the benefit of humanity while keeping risks in check will require global cooperation and governance. The report makes several concrete recommendations, and it is great to already see related actions, e.g., in the recent establishment of an Independent Scientific Panel on AI and a Global Dialogue on AI Governance.”
Prof. Dr. Andreas Krause
Member of the High-Level Advisory Body on AI