NEW YORK (AP) – United 
Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres used his final address to the General Assembly to urge world leaders to regulate artificial intelligence, end wars, focus on climate change and overhaul UN institutions he warned are struggling to confront mounting global challenges.
The former Portuguese prime minister, whose second five-year term ends on Dec 31, reiterated his calls for global oversight of AI risks, just as the UN’s 15-member Security Council prepares to host AI leaders for a briefing on the powerful technology.
Guterres also reflected on the gridlock within the organization, as nearly 130 world leaders gathered in New York, and Chinese President Xi Jinping and others – including leaders from South Africa, India and Germany – skipped the diplomatic meeting.
Guterres demanded that “polluters must pay” for climate change and pressed for reforms to international institutions, causes he has championed throughout his decade leading the United Nations.
The address capped a decade-long tenure in which Guterres sought to position the UN as a mediator in conflicts and a forum for governing emerging technologies, even as major powers increasingly bypassed the organization and Washington slashed its funding.
“Those countries leading this technological revolution must share information on emerging safety risks, cooperate on testing and evaluation – and work towards common safeguards that protect us all,” Guterres told the assembly.
He called on the leaders gathered in New York to “advance the conditions for the responsible pacing of AI and the additional safeguards needed to address risks” and to “work towards a multilateral AI risk management framework, supported by credible and independent oversight”.