Updated Oct 29

International Governance

The multilateral system keeps adding rooms for talking about AI, and none of them can bind anyone. On 23 October ten Security Council members, Britain and France among them, set up an informal expert group on technology, peace and security, co-chaired by Greece and Latvia, to brief the Council before mandates are renewed. The United States, China and Russia are not founders. It is not a Council decision and has no mandate, budget or staff.

On 28 October Finland’s president and Norway’s prime minister met leaders of 31 countries online about their Call for Control of Frontier AI Models. Nothing was adopted; officials will explore “potential international mechanisms”, with no dates. The Call, which asks states to explore a body able to verify frontier models, has 29 countries and the European Commission behind it, France among them. The United States, China, Britain, Japan and India have not endorsed it.

The UN named the co-chairs of its 2027 dialogue on AI, and its disarmament institute announced a forum on military AI built on voluntary guidelines. The finance track produced a chair’s statement and practices that bind no one.

New Oct 29

The whole story4 chapters

The state of it — as of October 29, 2026

29 + EU

countries endorsing the Call for Control; the US, China, Britain, Japan and India have not

members of the UN's Independent International Scientific Panel on AI

practices in the Financial Stability Board's AI guidance, which it says do not bind

Today

NewOct 28, 2026

Leaders of 31 Countries Meet on the Call for Control, and Hand It to Officials

Finland’s president and Norway’s prime minister convened political leaders from 31 countries online to follow up their Call for Control of Frontier AI Models, they said on 28 October. Nothing was adopted. They announced an expert-level process among interested countries to explore options and “potential international mechanisms”, with no chair, members or dates. The Call itself, which asks states to explore an institution able to verify frontier models, has 29 countries and the European Commission behind it and has gained no endorsement since 28 September. The United States, China, Britain, Japan and India are not among them.

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Alexander StubbGovernment of Norway

Earlier this month

NewOct 23, 2026

Ten Security Council Members Set Up an Expert Group on Technology; the US, China and Russia Are Not Among Them

Ten of the Security Council’s fifteen members launched an informal expert group on technology, peace and security on 23 October: Bahrain, Colombia, the DR Congo, Denmark, France, Greece, Latvia, Liberia, Panama and the United Kingdom. Greece and Latvia co-chair it this year, and it first meets in November. It is open to any current or future member and will brief members on emerging technologies before mandates such as peacekeeping are renewed. It is not a Council decision: no mandate, budget or staff was announced, and its co-chairs say it will not prejudge the Council’s response.

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United NationsDigital Watch Observatory (DiploFoundation)United Nations

Oct 20, 2026

The UN’s Disarmament Institute Opens a Forum on Military AI, Built on Voluntary Guidelines

On 20 October Robin Geiss, director of UNIDIR, the UN’s disarmament research institute, said its Centre of Excellence on AI, Peace and Security would launch a multi-stakeholder forum on military AI on 22 October. The centre was set up in Geneva this year. The forum will work on voluntary guidelines for companies that design military AI, a shared vocabulary for terms such as autonomy and safety, and the misuse of AI by non-state armed groups. No member-state mandate was cited, and none of the work binds anyone. Geiss said all five permanent Security Council members fund the centre.

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United NationsABC NewsUN Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR)

Oct 17, 2026

The IMF’s Steering Committee Settles the Name: Neither ‘AI’ Nor ‘Super Intelligence’

The IMF’s steering committee closed its Bangkok meeting on 17 October without a communiqué, issuing instead a chair’s statement by Saudi Arabia’s finance minister, Mohammed Aljadaan, whose numbered paragraphs members agreed. Wherever it discusses the technology it says “advanced intelligence technologies” — never “artificial intelligence”, and not the “super intelligence” Washington had pressed for. Members said uncertainty about the technologies could amplify financial vulnerabilities, pledged to harness them for productivity while addressing the risks, and welcomed the Fund’s work on their policy implications. None of it binds anyone.

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Ministry of Finance, JapanInternational Monetary Fund

Oct 16, 2026

Saint Kitts and Nevis and South Korea Will Chair the UN’s 2027 Dialogue on AI

The President of the General Assembly appointed two ambassadors to chair the Global Dialogue on AI Governance in New York in 2027: Mutryce Agatha Williams of Saint Kitts and Nevis and Jihoon Cha of South Korea. He did so under resolution 79/325, the August 2025 text that created the Dialogue and the scientific panel. The Dialogue meets on 3–4 May 2027, according to Yonhap. It is a forum for talks. It adopts nothing binding, and the appointment gives it chairs, not powers.

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United NationsThe Korea TimesThe Korea Herald

Oct 15, 2026

At the IMF Meetings, Finance Ministries Take Up AI — and Washington Asks Them to Call It ‘Super Intelligence’

At the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok on 15 October, G7 finance ministers and central bankers agreed to rehearse AI-driven cyberattacks on the financial system; no timetable or scenario has been published. The Financial Stability Board issued final guidance for financial firms adopting AI — twelve practices it says are not a binding standard. And the US Treasury’s Erin Browne said Washington, as G20 president, was negotiating to have the IMF’s steering committee write ‘super intelligence’ instead of ‘artificial intelligence’, a term she said ‘more appropriately encapsulates the technology’. A source said US officials suggested they would insist; the committee’s statement was due on 17 October.

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Global Banking & Finance ReviewResultsenseFinancial Stability BoardCNA (Channel NewsAsia)Dealroom

This quarter

Sep 23, 2026

At the Security Council, the Labs Ask for Rules and Washington Declines

France convened a Security Council meeting on AI. The chief executives of OpenAI and Anthropic appeared and, AP reported, both asked governments for safeguards: Sam Altman said ‘We could lose control of the future to AI’; Dario Amodei asked leaders to ‘establish common standards’ for testing. White House science adviser Michael Kratsios said such worries are ‘not a reason to pause its further development or to constrain it with new global governance structure’. A day earlier President Trump told the General Assembly the United States ‘rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control’ AI. No report describes any text being adopted.

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Associated PressPBS NewsHourPolitico EuropePBS NewsHourPassBlue

Sep 22, 2026

Canada Floats a ‘Technology Stability Board’ to the G7; Nothing Has Been Launched

Canada’s AI minister, Evan Solomon, said he had spoken with G7 counterparts about a ‘technology stability board’ to evaluate AI models before release. The account is his alone — no other government has confirmed it, and the Canadian Press noted that such a body ‘has not yet been launched or announced’. Britain says AI will be central to its G20 presidency in 2027. The fixed dates ahead: G20 leaders in Miami in December; the UN’s Global Dialogue in New York on 3–4 May 2027; an AI summit in Geneva on 21–22 June 2027; G20 leaders in Manchester that November.

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BNN BloombergGlobal NewsUK Government (gov.uk)Digital Watch Observatory (DiploFoundation)Tech Policy PressAssociated Press

NewSep 21, 2026

Twenty Governments and the EU Ask for a Body to Verify Frontier AI; Washington and Beijing Do Not Sign

Finland’s president and Norway’s prime minister launched ‘A Call for Control of Frontier AI Models’ at the UN. Leaders of twenty countries and the European Commission signed. It asks companies for mandatory pre-deployment testing, governments for shared reporting of serious incidents, and UN members to ‘explore creating an international institution, able to set standards, enable verification, and convene states when capability thresholds are crossed’. It sets no deadline and creates nothing. The United States and China did not sign. Within a week nine more countries endorsed it, France among them, making 29 and the Commission; Britain, Japan and India have not.

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Government of NorwayGovernment of the NetherlandsThe Straits TimesUnited NationsUnited NationsTech Policy Press

Sep 21, 2026

The UN’s Scientific Panel Issues Its First Thematic Brief, on Agents Escaping Control

In September the UN’s Independent International Scientific Panel on AI published a thematic brief on AI agents, misalignment and the risk of losing human control, built on evidence from the OpenAI–Hugging Face incident and released as an advance unedited version. It makes no recommendations: it sets out approaches from aviation, nuclear power and cybersecurity as options for decision-makers, and it does not estimate how likely severe loss of control is. No government or adopted text has been found citing it.

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United Nations

Sep 16, 2026

‘More Than Good Intentions’: the UN Puts a Word to the Voluntary Approach

Before the General Assembly’s high-level week, António Guterres said national action on AI is essential but global coordination indispensable — and that voluntary efforts to slow AI development ‘will not be sufficient if they are isolated, unverifiable or unevenly applied’. Asked whether the UN could convene a summit leading to real regulation, he said not next week, but soon, with everybody on board. He called for an AI Child Safety Pledge and a Global Fund for AI. The two bodies the Assembly created in August 2025 are meant to interlock: the Independent International Scientific Panel supplies evidence, the annual Global Dialogue decides what to do with it. The panel’s first report, in July, found capabilities advancing fastest in reasoning, coding and science, and named misinformation, discrimination, privacy, cyberattacks and superintelligence among the risks.

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United Nations

Sep 2, 2026

AI's chief executives get the podium at a G20 meeting, and ask governments to wait

The two American officials chairing the G20 Innovation Ministerial in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on 1–2 September gave the meeting's on-stage interviews to technology chiefs: White House science director Michael Kratsios hosted Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Demis Hassabis and David Sacks; Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick hosted Jensen Huang, Sam Altman, Anthropic's Tom Brown and Palantir's Alex Karp. They used the platform to ask the ministers for less regulation — Huang's advice was to “regulate practical and actual harm, and not regulate theoretical and hypothetical harm”; Altman told them adopting AI “is non-negotiable”. They came as invited guests of a ministers' meeting, a lesser seat than the G7 gave them at Évian in June.

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The White HouseThe Wall Street JournalCNBCAxios

Earlier this year

Jun 17, 2026The G7 gives the AI companies a seat at the leaders' table — for only the second time in fifty-two years

Earlier

Aug 26, 2025The UN gives AI its IPCC: a 40-member scientific panel by resolution

Mar 21, 2024UN General Assembly adopts its first resolution on AI

Covered since Mar 2024Read it from the start →