UN AI for Good Summit Launches 44-Member Commission Amid Protests

The United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union held its 10th annual AI for Good summit in a 106,000-square-meter convention center near Geneva’s airport district. Wired reported that the event included keynotes, product displays, and side sessions focused on using artificial intelligence to address global challenges.

Doreen Bogdan-Martin, secretary-general of the ITU, delivered a keynote in which she said artificial intelligence deployed responsibly could help solve problems from hunger to disease to a warming planet.

She added that the idea is being tested by challenges AI itself is bringing. Pro-Palestine activists stormed the stage during a keynote by Amazon chief technology officer Werner Vogels, alleging that the company’s technology is being used by Israel against Palestinians.

Giulio Coppi, senior humanitarian officer at Access Now, spoke on the sidelines and said organizations should stop treating tech companies as their best friends after a decade of opaque multimillion-dollar public deals.

Vijay Janapa Reddi, an engineering professor at Harvard University, told attendees that good means nothing to engineers and that a plane that flies for five minutes is not good. The United Nations announced the formation of a 44-member commission to advance AI for Good, cochaired by Rwandan president Paul Kagame and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.

Bogdan-Martin said no single stakeholder can shape the future of AI alone and that it needs builders.

Displays on the convention floor included Tesla Cybertrucks, UN rescue helicopters, and humanoid robots running between booths. Wired reported that the Trump administration has implemented then lifted export controls on leading frontier AI models during the period leading up to the summit.