The inaugural Global Dialogue on AI Governance marked the first time, as speakers noted, that every UN Member State had a seat at the table to discuss artificial intelligence opportunities and risks; bridging AI divides; ensuring AI is safe, secure and trustworthy; and protecting human rights.

António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General, struck a somber note in his opening address. Calling artificial intelligence “an experiment…being run on our own societies – without a plan, and without consent,” he issued three warnings: its speed, which outstrips our institutions’ ability to govern; its power, “concentrated in a handful of companies, and in a handful of countries”; and truth:

A machine-enabled lie can now persuade as effectively as the truth – and authentic evidence can be dismissed as fake.
Further eroding the integrity of our information ecosystem and undermining trust.
A society that cannot agree on what is real cannot defend itself.

The preliminary report of the International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence was also released – a must-read for anyone wanting to understand “the state of AI”.

As Panel co-chair Maria Ressa explained, the report reflects consensus among its 40 independent members, based on the evidence. “Consensus,” she said, “means you move to the centre.” So, she added, “This is the floor of our concern, not the ceiling. And that is alarming enough.”

The report points to major gains in science, health, and education – alongside serious risks to information integrity, growing vulnerability, and increased abuse, especially against women, girls, journalists, and marginalized populations.

The two days were filled with speeches, many alternating state representatives with civil society voices. But “dialogue” – especially with those who hold power – seemed non-existent at this initial stage.

The Global Dialogue overlapped with the increasingly high-profile AI for Good Global Summit – a technology expo with staged areas for companies and organizations to showcase products and services or pitch problems that need solving. A sign of its growing popularity: for the first year it charged admission for most attendees, with a premium fee for the “Centre Stage” sessions.

Alongside impressive demonstrations of technology improving accessibility and scientific research, it was clear we remain captivated by humanoid robots – and that the allure of what we could do still overshadows what we should do. Its popularity and the claim of its organizers (International Telecommunications Union-ITU in partnership with other UN agencies, with the Swiss Government as co-convener) that it is “the United Nations’ leading platform on Artificial Intelligence” raises real questions about how it relates to – and where it is steering – the Global Dialogue.

The third event has had a longer, more inclusive history. The vision of the World Summit on the Information Society calls for a “people-centred, inclusive, and development-oriented Information Society,” and for over 20 years it has served as the primary multistakeholder forum for implementing communication and digital commitments. This is where community networks, human rights organizations, regulators, and private sector providers share sessions and plenaries – albeit alongside high-profile State sponsors.

No doubt because Geneva’s main conference centre, Palexpo, was fully booked by the Global Dialogue and AI for Good, the first two days of the 2026 WSIS Forum were held at ITU headquarters, down a construction-strewn road. The low-key setup – magnified by a confusing warren of hallways and meeting rooms – gave the impression that WSIS was the poor relation of digital governance.

The setting improved once the Forum moved to Palexpo for the rest of the week, but compared to the three halls buzzing with people (and robots) at AI for Good, the atmosphere stayed muted.

While the WSIS vision remains unfulfilled, it is still the platform that addresses the entire information society, including the digital environment. The Global Dialogue was full of speeches calling for meaningful community involvement, respect for human rights, equal access, and transparency; it is the WSIS Forum where actual efforts at community and multistakeholder cooperation are demonstrated as models for further action. It is far from a perfect, all-purpose governance and financing platform – but it is the most inclusive in focus and participation.

There is yet another significant platform coming up in a different time and place – the United Nations Internet Governance Forum – to be held in December in Nairobi, Kenya. Its 2026 theme is “Governing the Internet in the Age of Intelligence: Our Shared Responsibility.” Its mandate, linked to the WSIS process, is to bring diverse stakeholders together to shape digital public policy across both public and private sectors.

As the WACC delegation navigated these three meetings last week – and looks ahead to the IGF – we are left wondering where the most effective action on digital justice will actually happen.

Each forum has a role, and each needs WACC’s advocacy on equity, participation, and accountability. But the links between best practice, multistakeholder dialogue, public policy, and sustainable development have not yet been forged, and the still largely unregulated development of AI raises a hard question: which forum, or combination of forums, will have real impact?

Speaking at the WSIS Forum, Jennifer Chung, Chair of the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group, directly addressed the need for coordination, collaboration, and cohesion among these four platforms – essential to implementing the Global Digital Compact and to the power of multistakeholder cooperation.

Digital justice is needed more than ever, and WACC is committed to making sure the voices and experiences of those advocating for equity, participation, and accountability are heard loud and clear in every one of these forums. But that takes all of us.

Follow these processes. Read the reports. Speak up when your national delegation takes its seat at the Global Dialogue, raise questions about community involvement in the latest AI tech, and share our stories of how technological solutions work for all at WSIS and the IGF.

Most importantly, take action where you are. Digital justice is not only decided in Geneva or Nairobi – it is built in the communities where access, literacy, and safety are still out of reach.

Support your local community media. Champion digital literacy where you live. Push back against disinformation in your own networks. The forums will keep meeting. Whether they deliver justice depends on what we do between them.

Images: (clockwise from top) participants at WSIS, ITU/Pierre Albouy; speaker at the Global Governance on AI, ITU/Antoine Tardy; AI for Good Summit, ITU/D Woldu. All photos on ITU’s Flickr profile, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. 

That transformation – with all its positive and negative real world impacts – is part of the information eco-system under scrutiny at the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) +20 High Level Event being held in Geneva, 7-11 July 2025.  

The forum brings together government ministers, regulators, UN leaders, industry executives, and civil society advocates from over 150 countries to take stock of efforts since the Geneva Plan of Action, agreed in 2003 and set in motion in 2005, and make recommendations for the next phase of the world’s digital transformation.

Outcomes will contribute directly to the UN General Assembly’s 20-year review of WSIS, scheduled for December in New York, which may also take into account the implementation of the Global Digital Compact agreed at the UN Pact for the Future in September 2024.

Despite long-running civil society campaigning from the first WSIS, the gaps and solutions highlighted by the governments and their corporate partners have primarily focused on technical responses to access rather than a comprehensive, rights-based approach. Will this High-Level Event prove any different?

At this event, one of the international forums where civil society can significantly take part, WACC will be actively participating to foster local to global voices and community-focused solutions, adding its weight to broader civil society pressure for a people-centred information society.

Under the slogan, Communication for All: From Connectivity to Community, WACC will be stressing that 20 years on, we need a new digital paradigm, one rooted in communication rights and built to serve the public interest, not private profit.

This call is echoed by our civil society partners. At the opening session of the Internet Governance Forum on 23 June 2025, the Global Digital Justice Forum, of which WACC is a member, along with IT for Change, delivered a challenge – and a vision of hope:

 We must reject the human-made dystopia that threatens to consume us; we must build digital governance together. The democratic deficits of the present digital order actively harm those at the margins – communities seeking legitimacy for visions of a digital society accountable to the planet and to future generations. At the Global Digital Justice Forum, we believe that there is no paucity of ideas to make real a global internet community connected by an ethic of pluralism, made up of the many smalls that are differently beautiful. These worldviews of another digital paradigm – demonstrated by social movements, workers’ organizations, tech communities, and civic groups everywhere – need a radical democracy of inclusive institutions.

Will our voices be heard? Sometimes the impact we make seems tinier than a drop in an ocean of political and private self-interest. But that will never stop those of us committed to justice, equality, accountability, and inclusion.

You can join in the advocacy at WSIS+20. WACC will hold the session “Communication is Humanitarian Aid: Safeguarding Rights in Times of Risk” on July 10 at 16:00-16:45 (UTC+02:00), and WACC General Secretary Philip Lee will speak during the Leaders TalkX session on 14:00–14:30 (UTC+02:00). Register for remote participation to follow sessions, and contribute your questions and insights on WACC Global’s social media channels or by email.

Our movement is growing, and together we will make a difference.

Image: ChatGPT