{"id":48980,"date":"2026-07-02T12:23:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T19:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=48980"},"modified":"2026-07-02T12:23:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T19:23:01","slug":"un-creates-ai-for-good-commission-full-of-big-tech-execs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/02\/un-creates-ai-for-good-commission-full-of-big-tech-execs\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Creates \u2018AI for Good\u2019 Commission\u2014Full of Big Tech Execs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"World<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The CEO of the software company Salesforce, Marc Benioff, attends the 55th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 23, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo by Halil Sagirkaya\/Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The commission\u2019s upcoming first meeting will focus on \u201cstrengthening AI infrastructure, accelerating AI\u2019s impact on health, education, food security, and disaster response, and ensuring trust and safety,\u201d said its CEO co-chair.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Corbett<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jul 01, 2026 ( CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A week after United Nations<\/a> Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres called on<\/a> artificial intelligence<\/a> companies to \u201ccome clean<\/a>\u201d about the full costs of power-sucking data centers, and as a UN panel on Wednesday released a report detailing the risks and impacts of AI, Axios revealed<\/a> the creation of a related commission that\u2019s full of Big Tech<\/a> executives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c<\/strong>The UN and its International Telecommunication Union (ITU) are convening the AI for Good Global Commission, which will hold its first meeting on July 8 in Geneva, Switzerland<\/a>,\u201d according to the outlet. It will be co-chaired by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Rwandan President Paul Kagame, with other tech and policy leaders joining as members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So far, Axios reported, they include ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Estonian President Alar Karis, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark, Cohere co-founder Aidan Gomez, Microsoft<\/a> president Brad Smith, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang, and AI and tech policymakers from Kazakhstan<\/a>, Namibia, Nigeria<\/a>, Saudi Arabia<\/a>, and Singapore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAI is the most profound technological transition in history. And our values have to guide every step, because responsibility is the core of AI ethics,\u201d Benioff said. The commission will bring together \u201cthe people who build AI, deploy it, shape policy, and represent communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that \u201cour inaugural meeting will focus on where this group is uniquely positioned to act together: strengthening AI infrastructure<\/a>, accelerating AI\u2019s impact on health, education, food security, and disaster response, and ensuring trust and safety.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, given recent polls showing that the public has limited<\/a> confidence in large technology<\/a> companies, opposes<\/a> constructing data centers for artificial intelligence in their local area, is wary<\/a> of AI\u2019s impact on daily life, and has concerns about politicians having a \u201ccozy relationship<\/a>\u201d with Big Tech, the commission may be met with skepticism or even backlash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the lead-up to the commission\u2019s meeting next week at the ITU\u2019s AI for Good Global Summit<\/a>, the UN plans to hold the inaugural Global Dialogue on AI Governance<\/a>, featuring a presentation of the \u201cPreliminary Report of the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence<\/a>,\u201d published Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Established with a UN resolution last August, the panel is the first global scientific body on AI\u2014and, as Guterres said<\/a> in a statement about its new report, \u201cthe panel is intended to help the world separate fact from fakes, and science<\/a> from slop.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are looking to them to provide an authoritative reference point at a moment when reliable, unbiased understanding of AI has never been more critical,\u201d the UN chief explained. \u201cI am pleased to say that they have delivered a down payment on that commitment\u2014in record time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The panel\u2019s co-chair, Canadian computer scientist Yoshua Bengio, noted that \u201cAI capabilities are outpacing both scientific understanding and governments\u2019 ability to adapt. With growing evidence of deceptive AI behavior, science currently cannot guarantee that as capabilities continue to increase, AI will not cause catastrophic harm, either on its own or due to malicious users.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo act effectively, global policymakers must understand these systems,\u201d he asserted. \u201cThis panel provides exactly that: a rigorous, shared scientific foundation to guide our collective way forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

X post: https:\/\/x.com\/Yoshua_Bengio\/status\/2072350544056688935?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2072350544056688935%7Ctwgr%5Ee033766e6320b4d16a47505a3796272a63d23f99%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2Funited-nations-ai<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report discusses AI\u2019s recent advances and expected trajectories; societal applications, from agriculture<\/a> to education to healthcare<\/a>; economic implications; security and environmental concerns; impacts on democracy<\/a>, human rights<\/a>, and information; potential harms to child safety and culture; and governance of the rapidly developing technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe technology is transformative, but if the world keeps moving along this trajectory, humanity will fail to realize the gains it promises. The risks\u2014to societies, to security, and to our species\u2014are too high, and the forces driving AI forward are not the forces that will deliver its benefits,\u201d said Maria Ressa, a panel\u2019s co-chair and Nobel Peace Prize-winning Filipino-American journalist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guterres, whose term ends this year, similarly stressed the need for urgent action on a global scale. He said that the \u201csingle lesson\u201d he wanted to highlight from the multifaceted report is that \u201cthe more AI advances without shared rules, the less say governments and people will have in the outcome. So my message to governments is simple: Do not wait.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNext week in Geneva, the first Global Dialogue on AI Governance will begin to turn science into shared action\u2014with every nation at the same table,\u201d he said. \u201cI look forward to joining member states there to help carry this work forward. And soon, I will set out proposals to help countries build the capacity to adequately deal with this technology\u2014and share in its rewards.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guterres\u2019 Wednesday comments came after he publicly took aim at artificial intelligence companies last week, proposing the AI Environmental Transparency Initiative during London Climate Action Week, as the second heatwave in as many months scorched<\/a> the United Kingdom<\/a> and various other European countries, killing<\/a> at least hundreds of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am calling on every major AI company to measure and publicly disclose the full environmental impact of its systems\u2014carbon,\u00a0water<\/a>, and land footprints\u2014and to commit to power every data center with\u00a0renewable energy<\/a>\u00a0by 2030,\u201d he declared. \u201cNo more hidden costs. No more shifting the burden onto those least able to bear it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Corbett<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The CEO of the software company Salesforce, Marc Benioff, attends the 55th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 23, 2025. \u00a0(Photo by Halil Sagirkaya\/Anadolu via Getty Images) The commission\u2019s upcoming first meeting will focus on \u201cstrengthening AI infrastructure, accelerating AI\u2019s impact on health, education,… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2030],"tags":[490,1273],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48980"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48981,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48980\/revisions\/48981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}