The urgent need for a “global approach” on AI regulation: UN Tech Chief

The world needs to urgently find a global approach to regulating artificial intelligence, the UN’s top tech chief warned this week that fragmentation could deepen risks and inequality.

Doreen Bogdan Martin, head of the United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU) agency, told AFP he hopes that AI can “actually benefit humanity.”

But as concerns grow with the risks posed by high-speed moving technologies, she argued that regulations are important, including the fear of mass unemployment, spreading deep fakes and disinformation, and fraying of society’s fabrics.

“There’s an urgency to get the right framework,” she said, highlighting the need for a “global approach.”

Her comments came after US President Donald Trump announced this week a proactive, low-regulation strategy aimed at ensuring that the US is ahead of China with AI.

Of more than 90 proposals, Trump’s plan calls for a sweep of deregulation as it promises to “remove deficits and troubling regulations” that could hinder AI development in the private sector.

Asked if there were concerns about a lesser approach rather than AI Technologies regulations, Bogdanmartin declined to comment, saying she was still “trying to digest” the US plan.

‘Fatal’

“I think there are different approaches,” she said.

“There’s an EU approach. There’s a Chinese approach. Now we see the US approach. I think what we need is an approach to dialogue,” she said.

At the same time, she emphasized that “85% of the country still don’t have AI policies or strategies.”

A consistent theme of the strategy that exists is focusing on innovation, capacity building and infrastructure investment, Bogdan Martin said.

“But what I think still needs to happen at a global level is trying to figure out how many regulations, how few regulations are,” she said.

Bogdan Martin, who grew up in New Jersey and spent most of his three-plus-year career at ITU, argued that the Geneva-based communications agency that sets the standards for new technologies, would help promote much-needed dialogue on issues.

“I think the need for a global approach is important,” she said.

As countries and businesses sprint to solidify their dominance in booming sectors, there are concerns that preventative measures can be thrown at the wind, leaving people who lose race or have no capacity to participate.

“A huge gap”

The ITU chief welcomed the “surprising” advancements within artificial intelligence that could improve everything from education to agriculture to agriculture and healthcare, but argued that profits must be shared.

Without a coordinated effort, she warned that there is a risk that AI will support “advancing inequality,” and that it will deepen the already dire digital disparity.

“We have 2.6 billion people who have no access to the internet, which means they have no access to artificial intelligence,” Bogdan Martin pointed out.

“If we actually have something beneficial to all humanity, we need to tackle those disparities.”

Bogdan-Martin, the first woman to serve as ITU executive director in the organization’s nearly 160-year history, also emphasized the need to bring more women into the digital space.

“We have a huge gap,” she said.

“We definitely don’t have enough women… to artificial intelligence.”

The mother of four, 59, said it was a “big honor” to be “smashing down the glass ceiling (and paving the paths of future generations)”.

However, she acknowledged that there was a lot of pressure to “not only achieve it, but almost master it.”

Bogdan Martin, who is supported by the Trump administration to support reelection when the four-year order ends next year, said she is eager to stay in her second term.

“There’s a lot to do.”

©2025 AFP