UPDATE — AUGUST 2025: Since the UN and OECD announced their AI governance partnership at the September 2024 Summit of the Future, the initiative has shifted into concrete implementation. By December 2024, the two bodies established a Joint Working Group on AI Governance, drawing experts from the OECD’s AI Policy Observatory, UN agencies, and the Global Partnership on AI. In February 2025, the partnership was folded into the UN’s AI for Humanity framework, aligning AI oversight with broader digital inclusion, human rights, and data governance reforms under the Global Digital Compact.
In June 2025, the OECD and UN released their first Global Risk & Opportunity Review (AI-GROR 2025) in Geneva, highlighting risks such as deepfakes and election interference, vulnerabilities in critical infrastructure, and the urgent need for policies to manage AI-driven labor market transitions. At the same time, the review underscored that governance must protect innovation while building global trust. The partnership is also aligning its work with the EU AI Act’s phased rollout, U.S. Executive Order commitments, the G7 Hiroshima AI Process, and the African Union’s AI strategy to avoid fragmented regulatory regimes.
Looking ahead, the UN General Assembly will debate an AI governance resolution later in 2025, with OECD analysis expected to guide discussions. A second joint report is planned for 2026, and early talks are underway on creating a voluntary international AI safety registry for high-risk models, jointly overseen by the UN and OECD. Together, these steps mark the first real attempt to build a minimum global baseline for AI safety and responsible deployment.
ORIGINAL NEWS STORY:
OECD and UN Announce Enhanced Collaboration on Global AI Governance
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations (UN) recently announced a new partnership focused on global artificial intelligence (AI) governance. The collaboration, revealed during the “Summit of the Future” at the UN headquarters in New York, aims to strengthen the global framework for managing both the opportunities and risks posed by rapidly evolving AI technologies.
The announcement was made by Ulrik Vestergaard Knudsen, Deputy Secretary-General of the OECD, and Amandeep Singh Gill, the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology. Both leaders emphasized the importance of cohesive global efforts to ensure that AI is developed and deployed in a responsible, inclusive, and human-centered way.
The joint initiative reflects the urgency of establishing effective governance for AI, as the technology continues to develop at an unprecedented pace. According to UN Under-Secretary-General Gill, the collaboration between the UN and OECD will help governments and policymakers around the world respond more effectively to the challenges and opportunities AI presents.
“The speed of AI technology development and the breadth of its impact require diverse policy ecosystems to work more cohesively and in real time,” said Gill. “I am delighted that the OECD and the UN will link their efforts to help governments improve the quality and timeliness of their policy response to AI’s opportunities and its risks.”
The collaboration will focus on regular science-based assessments of AI’s risks and opportunities. These assessments will be supported by the technical expertise and analytical capabilities of the OECD, paired with the UN’s extensive global reach.
The foundation of this partnership is rooted in a shared commitment to evidence-based policy. Deputy Secretary-General Knudsen emphasized the need for rigorous scientific analysis as a cornerstone of effective AI governance.
“Rigorous scientific and evidence-based assessment must be at the heart of global AI governance,” Knudsen stated. “This announcement marks a significant step in that direction by bringing the technical and analytical capabilities of the OECD together with the UN’s global reach.”
The OECD has already laid considerable groundwork in the area of AI policy through its “AI Policy Observatory,” which provides data and analysis on AI trends, and its work advancing the implementation of the “OECD AI Principles,” which promote trustworthy AI. The “Global Partnership on AI (GPAI)”—an initiative hosted at the OECD—also plays a critical role in fostering collaboration on AI research and policy among countries.
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