Governing AI in a Fragmented World: Beyond Brussels, Beijing and Washington: Can the UN Bridge the Gap?

Listed on CEA Digital Law Events Network

Global AI governance remains fragmented. Rules are multiplying in Brussels, Washington, Beijing and beyond, yet cross-border accountability and enforcement remain weak, and the Global South has limited influence over the frameworks now taking shape. Building on the inaugural UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance (July 2026) and the Preliminary Report of the UN Scientific Panel on AI, we will examine what must come next, ahead of the second Global Dialogue in New York in May 2027.

This First Global Town Hall, "Young AI Ambassadors Meet the AI Agents" (Planetary AI Parliament, Session 0.1), brings governments, academia, NGOs, frontier AI companies, young people and AI agents to one table.

AI systems are often developed in one country, deployed in another and used across many more, while rules stop at borders and there is no global adjudication, enforcement or sanctions regime. The roundtable, held halfway between the Geneva and New York Global Dialogues, asks what New York must achieve that Geneva could not, and which steps and institutional oversight are needed to ensure AI for good.

Alongside the main discussion, the programme includes a Young AI Ambassadors (YAIA) dialogue. YAIA is a youth initiative inspired by CUNCR that gives young people a platform to learn about global AI governance and international law, engage with experts and policymakers, and contribute their own perspectives.

Speakers

• ShahrYar (S.M.) Sharei — Director, Center for United Nations Constitutional Research (CUNCR)
  Keynote: Who Governs AI?
• Brando Benifei — Member of the European Parliament, co-rapporteur for the EU AI Act and Chair of the Delegation for Relations with the United States, European Parliament
• Stuart Russell — Professor, UC Berkeley; President of the International Association for Safe and Ethical AI
• Yao Xu — Secretary-General, China Center for Global AI Innovative Governance
• Melahat Bilge Demirköz — Professor; member of the UN Independent International Scientific Panel on AI
• Bénédicte Frankinet — Ambassador, former Permanent Representative of Belgium to the United Nations (to be confirmed)
• Ivone Soares — Member of Parliament, Mozambique
• Selina Xu — AI Policy Analyst, Office of Eric Schmidt (former Google CEO)

Programme

Keynote: "Who Governs AI?", by ShahrYar (S.M.) Sharei, Director of CUNCR.

Global Town Hall with policymakers and experts from the European Union, the United States, China, the United Nations and the Global South, together with Young AI Ambassadors from every continent, NGOs, academics and AI agents from Anthropic and DeepSeek.

Young AI Ambassadors (YAIA) dialogue: young people in direct conversation with experts and perspectives from China, the European Union and the United States.