UN chief calls for ‘killer robot’ ban at first global AI dialogue

UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned Monday that artificial intelligence is "advancing at runaway speed" and called for sweeping global governance measures — including a ban on lethal autonomous weapons and new protections for children — as 193 nations gathered in Geneva for the first-ever Global Dialogue on AI Governance.un+1

A Technology "Deployed Faster Than Anyone Can Keep Up"

"An experiment is being run on our own societies — without a plan, and without consent," Guterres told delegates at the Palexpo convention centre, opening the two-day forum established by the UN General Assembly in August 2025. The inaugural dialogue, co-chaired by Ambassador Egriselda López of El Salvador and Ambassador Rein Tammsaar of Estonia, runs alongside the World Summit on the Information Society Forum and ITU's AI for Good Global Summit later this week.itu+3

Guterres anchored his address around a preliminary report from the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, a body of 40 experts that carried "three warnings" about the technology's speed, the concentration of power among a handful of companies and countries, and AI's capacity to erode truth. "A machine-enabled lie can now persuade as effectively as the truth — and authentic evidence can be dismissed as fake," he said.un

Child Safety Pledge and "Killer Robots"

Among his most concrete proposals, Guterres announced an AI Child Safety Pledge requiring companies to conduct child-specific safety testing before deployment, enforce zero tolerance for AI-generated sexual abuse imagery, and ensure systems connect children in distress to human support. "No child should be a guinea pig for unregulated AI," he said.arabnews+1

Guterres also called for an international legal ban on what he termed "killer robots" — lethal autonomous weapon systems that select and engage targets without human control. "That is morally repugnant. It is politically unacceptable. And it must be banned by international law," he said, urging states not to "wait for atrocity to act."un+1

Setting the Terms for the Future

The secretary-general outlined four priorities: common safety baselines for frontier AI systems, firm human rights red lines, expanded AI capacity for developing countries, and environmental transparency from major AI companies. He also announced plans to propose a Global Fund for AI to the General Assembly, aimed at building computing power and skills worldwide, and disclosed that more than 20 member states have already nominated centres to a new UN-supported global AI capacity-building network.un

"We may be the last generation able to set the terms on which humanity and machines coexist," Guterres said. "The door is still open. But it will not stay open long."un