The Pulse
Developing Nations Press for a Voice in UN AI Rules
Developing nations urged a larger role in writing artificial intelligence rules during UN debates in New York. Bangladesh’s foreign minister said 128 delegations addressed AI this year, up from five four years ago.
AI.info Team · Written with AI ·
“Developing countries cannot be reduced to the role of mere users of technologies designed elsewhere,” Democratic Republic of the Congo Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner told a United Nations Security Council session on artificial intelligence. Her warning, reported on September 30, put a central concern of developing nations into direct terms: countries that have little influence over leading AI systems fear they will also have little say in the rules governing them.
128 delegations put AI on the UN agenda
Leaders from Africa, Asia and Latin America argued during last week’s UN meetings in New York that AI governance must include the countries likely to be affected by the technology, not only the governments and companies building the most powerful systems. Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman, who chaired the debate, said AI had been raised by 128 delegations this year, compared with five four years earlier. He said many framed the issue around who designs AI, who benefits, who bears the risks and who answers when harm occurs.
Wagner called for a role in setting standards, not simply adopting them after they have been written elsewhere. “We must ensure that technological transformations of the 21st century do not reproduce the economic imbalances of previous decades,” she said. The distinction matters for countries concerned that rules formed without their participation could reflect the interests and resources of wealthier states.
Bangladesh makes the case for a UN forum
Rahman has also argued that the United Nations offers a channel for countries with very different levels of technical and economic power to take part in the same process. In a September 10 speech on multilateral AI governance, he said: “The United Nations is the one forum in which every Member State has a seat, a voice and a stake in shaping this transformation.” He called for member states to begin consultations on priority areas for international governance ahead of the UN’s planned Global Dialogue on AI Governance.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres linked the debate over AI to long-running disputes about power and inequality. “These are not separate crises. They are chapters of the same story, the story of power: Who has it. Who is denied it. How it is used. And how it is changing,” he told the UN. Guterres and Global South leaders urged coordinated international action rather than isolated national responses.
Access could bring gains—or deepen dependence
The dispute is not only about who writes standards. Developing countries face gaps in electricity, internet access, skills and institutions that can limit their ability to build or adapt AI systems. The World Bank said in August that AI could let developing countries achieve in a decade what might otherwise take a century, but only if governments move quickly to close those gaps.
The economic opportunity is conditional, too. The International Monetary Fund estimated that AI could lift Sub-Saharan Africa’s economy by about 4% over a decade if countries establish the foundations for wider adoption; at current readiness levels, its estimate was just 0.2%. Belize Prime Minister John Briceño warned the same technology could deepen inequality, expose essential systems, displace workers and leave developing countries dependent on tools and rules designed elsewhere.
Washington’s view breaks with calls for joint rules
The push for broader participation contrasted with US President Donald Trump’s rejection of warnings about AI risks, which he called exaggerated at the UN. The disagreement leaves two distinct questions before governments: how to manage potential harms, and how to ensure countries outside the main centers of AI development help shape the response.
For developing nations, representation is tied to the practical conditions for using AI and sharing its gains. As Rahman’s delegation count suggests, the issue has drawn far more governments into the discussion than it did four years ago. The Security Council debate brought that growing participation into the same room as executives from OpenAI and Anthropic, who urged governments to work together on managing the technology.