The United Nations and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) launched the AI for Good Global Commission on July 2, 2026, bringing together 44 founding members drawn from governments, major technology companies, international businesses, and UN agencies.
Leadership
Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and Salesforce Chair and CEO Marc Benioff serve as co-chairs. ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin holds the role of permanent vice-chair. The appointment of a sitting head of state from a developing nation alongside a major US technology CEO was deliberate, according to the organizers, signaling the commission’s intent to represent both global south governments and the private sector equally.
Who is on it
The 44 founding members include heads of state from Estonia, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Namibia, Nigeria, Singapore, and Togo. On the industry side, the commission includes Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang, Microsoft president Brad Smith, Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark, and Cohere co-founder Aidan Gomez. Major non-tech companies — ArcelorMittal, Pfizer, and the IKEA Foundation — are also represented, alongside the heads of UNDP, UNESCO, WIPO, and the WTO.
What it aims to do
The commission’s stated mandate is to “strengthen trust, expand access and unlock AI’s potential to solve real-world challenges.” A specific emphasis is ensuring that AI does not deepen existing inequalities: according to the announcement, roughly 2.2 billion people globally remain offline and risk being left out of AI’s economic and social benefits entirely.
Focus areas include AI applications in health, education, food security, and disaster response. The commission is designed to connect technology builders, policy shapers, and community representatives across borders — rather than operating as another advisory body limited to wealthy nations.
First meeting
The commission held its inaugural session on July 7, 2026, in Geneva, as part of the ITU’s AI for Good Global Summit (July 7–10), which drew more than 11,000 participants from 169 countries. A second session of the broader UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance is already scheduled for New York in May 2027.
No specific deliverables or binding commitments were announced at launch; the commission is expected to define its workplan during the July sessions.