UN Chief Warns AI Advancing Faster Than Governance Can Match; Demands Ban on Lethal Autonomous Weapons

On Monday (July 6), UN Secretary-General António Guterres opened the first Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva, warning that artificial intelligence is advancing at "runaway speed" and outpacing institutional oversight. He used "vibe coding"—a term for letting AI write software without close human scrutiny—as a metaphor for dangerously passive governance, stating "we cannot vibe code the future of humanity." Guterres noted AI reached deployment scale in two years, compared to 15 years for the internet to reach one billion people.

Guterres unveiled the AI Child Safety Pledge, requiring companies to conduct independent safety testing before deploying AI systems to children, and called for an international law ban on lethal autonomous weapons that select and kill targets without human judgment. The dialogue, attended by all 193 UN member states, was informed by a preliminary report from the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence comprising 40 scientists from 140 countries, which found that current systems cannot guarantee AI safety. A second Global Dialogue is scheduled for New York in 2027.