New United Nations report reveals need for stronger international oversight of Artificial Intelligence
In the wake of emerging evidence that unregulated Artificial Intelligence (AI) puts children at a disproportionate risk of harm, global leaders are calling for stronger AI controls to be implemented on the international level.
The United Nations’ inaugural Global Dialogue on AI Governance, held from 6 to 7 June in Geneva, brought together experts from government, business, and civil society to ensure that the future of AI prioritizes safety and human choice.
The centerpiece of the event was the presentation of the UN Independent Scientific Panel on AI’s Preliminary Report, an analysis of the societal impacts and risks of artificial intelligence by 40 international scientists and experts. The report confirms what Education International recently asserted in its Network Meeting on AI: human connections, such as the teacher-student relationship, must remain at the core of AI and technological transformation.
“The question is no longer whether AI will transform our world – it already is,” stated UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his address. “The question is whether we will govern this transformation together – or let it govern us.”
Towards a unified strategy on AI regulation
This was not the first time that Secretary-General Guterres had called attention to the pressing matter of AI. In his very first address to the General Assembly in 2017, the Secretary-General warned of the technology’s potentially dramatic impact on labor markets, security, and “the very fabric of societies.” As artificial intelligence gained greater ubiquity in the following years, the UN took more proactive steps to curb the technology’s influence, such as in its adoption of the Global Digital Compact in 2024.
However, the Preliminary Report represents the institution’s strongest statement on the subject to date, with its warning that AI could “cause catastrophic harm, either on its own or due to malicious users”, with the technology “outpacing both scientific understanding and governments’ ability to adapt.”
The report makes specific mention of AI’s impact on marginalized populations, noting that biases in AI can lead to discrimination against women, children, and racial minorities. It also recognises the importance of teacher training, but only in the context of preparation for the profession, while omitting mention of professional rights, impact on working conditions or involvement in decision making.
In addition, the report repeatedly mentions personalization as an important opportunity for AI in education, even as this supposed benefit remains largely unproven and often overlooks the relational, pedagogical and social dimension of learning. These concerns warrant greater attention that Education International hopes will be considered in the follow-up to this event.
Need for caution when expanding AI’s role in education
Children’s rights are highlighted as an area of particular concern, as the number of children’s likenesses used in AI deepfakes has been increasing at an alarming rate. In addition, the report notes that children are especially vulnerable to manipulation by interactive AI, which poses risks to their development, safety, and wellbeing.
In response to these concerning trends, Secretary-General Guterres called on all UN member states to adopt an AI Child Safety Pledge, which would hold AI developers accountable to stricter testing and oversight standards.
“No child should be a guinea pig for unregulated AI,” Guterres stressed. “We do not let medicine reach a child until it is proven safe. We test every toy; yet AI has reached our children – their learning, their friendships, their most private questions, before anyone asked what it would do to them.”
These concerns are particularly relevant for Education International and its member organisations, as tech companies push for greater AI integration in the classroom. Trade unions must continue to mandate that AI tools brought into the classroom setting are properly vetted and tested, to ensure students are protected from manipulation and violations of privacy.
EI’s latest report on AI, student development, safety and how it links to the teacher-student relationship, presented at the recent AI Network Meeting in Madrid, is available here: Teaching, AI, and the Human Core of Education : The Future Worth Defending.
Shaping labor-friendly AI policies
While participants at the dialogue also spoke to AI’s potential economic benefits, particularly in developing countries, they pointed out that these gains must not come at the expense of workers. The Preliminary Report notes that economic growth does not automatically lead to equitable distribution; it requires good governance to ensure that these gains are shared by everyone. In addition to investing in AI, the report emphasizes that we need “complementary investments in skills, workflows, infrastructure and labour-market institutions. Without them, AI risks widening inequality, displacing workers and shifting wealth from labour to capital rather than creating sustainable good jobs – those with fair compensation, worker autonomy and a reliable path to social dignity.”
Representatives from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), along with Education International, welcomed the urgency and prominence of these remarks, while also stressing that several key aspects were missing from the conversation, such as the impact of AI on work – including teachers and researchers – and the important role of policy and social-dialogue, as well as collective bargaining, in shaping work-related matters in addition to education and research policies.
With the next Dialogue scheduled for May 2027 in New York, the global labor movement must continue its coordination to bring labour issues to the forefront of the conversation around AI. Future events present an opportunity to delve deeper into AI’s impacts on working conditions, ideally from a workers’ perspective, and elaborate on the role of collective bargaining in democratic AI governance. In order to fulfill the UN’s vision of an “AI that serves people everywhere,” workers and unions must have a seat at the table.
Read the latest update from EI’s AI and Technology team here:
