AI Multilateralism: Why the UN Remains the Central Cog in Global AI Governance
- Anupama Vijayakumar
- 17 hours ago
- 5 min read
UN-led AI multilateralism has been grappling with the realities of a fragmented world order in the recent past. Despite this reality, the UN has time and again advocated strongly for the urgency for governing AI so that the fate of humanity is not left to an algorithm. While the AI race and major powers' pursuit of national interests have dampened the UN's efforts in this direction, it has made commendable forays with respect to laying the foundations for consensus building. The UN's overtures toward solidifying norms with respect to leveraging AI for sustainable development and to ensure equitable distribution of its benefits are particularly noteworthy. Irrespective of how AI would shape geopolitical competition in the near future, the UN shall continue to prevail as a guiding light for AI multilateralism.
The role of the United Nations (UN), which has served as the anchor of the world order in the post-1945 era is increasingly being questioned in the 21st Century. To many, the lack of faith in UN-led multilateralism has reached levels unseen before. Addressing the UN General Assembly on 23 September 2025, US President Donald Trump seemed to mockingly lament the inability of the UN to “be of help”. On one level, this lack of faith springs from the UN’s inability to address prevailing challenges to global peace and security. This growing lack of faith is compounded by multiple challenges that the fast-paced diffusion of AI and its integration into critical sectors are throwing open. Amid growing calls for international collaboration in managing AI risk, the UN’s efforts at crafting AI multilateralism have been thwarted by the major powers’ relentless pursuit of power and national interest.
Yet, the UN has sought to highlight the urgency of governing AI, a technology if left ungoverned can become an existential threat. Legitimizing collective action through consensus-building wherever possible, the UN has sought to draw from the time-tested and reliable elements of multilateralism: “trust, consultation, collective decision-making, compromise and solidarity”. Steadily engaged in constructing mechanisms that prioritize the UN’s core values anchored to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN has laid foundations for inviolable norms, whose diffusion is shaping AI governance around the world. In this regard, its efforts have sought to overcome structural cracks in AI multilateralism.
Cracks in the AI Multilateralism
AI as a domain is a central resource driving geopolitical competition today. The major competitors in the AI race seldom agree on how the technology is to be governed. Particularly in the current context, effective multilateralism has been marred by the United States’ aversion to global AI governance. The UN Security Council meeting on AI held on 22 September 2025 witnessed the USA expressing its outright rejection of all efforts by international bodies to assert centralized control and global governance of AI.
Meanwhile, Russia has sought to oppose any restrictions from the UNSC on AI while viewing the technology as crucial to national security. Russia, however, has signaled that it would welcome AI regulation from the UN in general. China on the other hand has advocated for an AI governance mechanism that upholds respect for sovereignty and equity.
Amid the US taking a step back, China and Russia have stepped forward with attractive alternatives that reflect their contrasting interests. At least two major initiatives have been launched by China as a means to lead global collaboration on people-centric AI: the Global AI Governance initiative launched in 2023 and World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation (WAICO), which was announced at the 2025 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting held in Gyeongju, South Korea. Through WAICO, China intends to foster collaboration for making AI as a public good for the international community. Meanwhile, Russia has prominently employed BRICS as a forum to further its version of AI multilateralism. The status quo of AI multilateralism is hence characterized by fragmentation, a structural obstacle that the UN is striving to overcome.
Consultative and Consensus-based: The UN’s Contributions to AI Governance
The fragmented global AI governance landscape largely consists of soft law. The role of the UN has so far been to lay the foundations for consensus-building towards aspirational legally binding arrangements. The UN has done this through starting out from the bare threads of peremptory norms in international law. Peremptory norms or jus cogens essentially refer to those principles which are commonly accepted by the international community as something that should not be derogated. In this vein, human rights and sustainable development have been anchors upon which much of the existing soft law on AI rests upon. The Global Digital Compact which was adopted as annex to the Pact of the Future in 2024, which called for addressing digital divides and enhancing international AI governance, further epitomizes the UN’s efforts to prioritize equity.
Moreover, AI ethics has been an area where the UN’s interventions have been highly successful. Efforts have also been made to solidify norms around AI as safe, secure, trustworthy and responsible. The recommendations by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on AI ethics released in 2021 stands as success in this regard. Adopted by all 194 UN member-states these recommendations stand as the most widely adopted international instrument on AI in the current context. The UNESCO’s endeavours towards handholding nation-states in gauging AI readiness and formulating locally relevant AI policies are also commendable.
The UN has sought to set global AI governance on a successful course through adopting mechanisms that foster inclusive dialogue and expert advice. At the recent launch of the Global Dialogue on AI, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres identified three foundational pillars of AI governance: policy made through multilateral dialogue, science as the basis of decision-making and capacity building for bridging the AI divide. The newly constituted mechanisms including the Global Dialogue on AI and the International Independent Scientific Panel on AI shall work to strengthen these pillars. The two new mechanisms can make pivotal contributions toward bolstering AI governance through bringing a range of stakeholders to the table.
And the UN Shall Endure in AI Governance
Flaws inherent within the UN system are bound to make consensus building challenging. Both the complexity of the subject matter and the diverse interests of the various entities at the table are bound to render the negotiations difficult. Entities, state-or-non-state- chasing after victories, are unlikely to arrive at consensus-based legally binding outcomes. The larger inability of the UN to enforce its treaties, particularly amid the US’s absence, further constrains the UN’s ability to comprehensively govern AI.
In the words of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, “multilateralism is the beating heart of the UN”. Its role moving forward in the fragmented AI governance landscape is to fly the flag of multilateralism high. Particularly for the countries in the Global South, the UN remains the primary forum for voicing their concerns and to use AI as an opportunity to pursue sustainable development. Despite the highs and lows that the faith in multilateralism would undergo in the coming decades, UN-led multilateralism in AI is here to stay as a guiding light to the majority of the world.
Disclaimer: The article expresses the author’s views on the matter and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of any institution they belong to or of Trivium Think Tank and the StraTechos website.
Anupama is the Director (Research) of Trivium Think Tank, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. She is also the Editor of the StraTechos website.
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