UPCOMING EVENT
Governing at the Speed of AI
A High-Level Evening on International Coordination for
Crisis Preparedness at UNGA 81
Thursday, September 24, 2026 | 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM, Delegates Dining Room, UN Headquarters
OVERVIEW
AI Safety Connect at UNGA 81
Thursday, 24 September 2026 | UN Headquarters
Governing at the Speed of AI is an invitation-only evening convening 300 heads of State, Ministers, senior diplomats, frontier AI leaders and leading experts at the United Nations Headquarters during the High-Level Week of the 81st Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 81). As AI capabilities and risks advance at unprecedented speed, this gathering offers a rare setting to advance multilateral coordination toward safe, secure and trustworthy AI, align priorities across sectors and forge the relationships that international governance will require. The event is hosted by AI Safety Connect and co-hosted by the Permanent Missions of Canada, Estonia and Kenya to the United Nations.
TENTATIVE PROGRAM
TENTATIVE PROGRAM
6:00PM - 6:20PM
Registration & Doors Open
6:30PM - 6:35PM
Welcome Remarks
6:40PM - 7:00PM
Opening Remarks (Head of State Level)
7:00PM - 7:25PM
Panel or Fireside Chat: Operationalizing Crisis Preparedness
7:30PM - 7:50PM
7:30PM-7:50PM
VVIP Keynote 1
VVIP Keynote 2
7:50PM - 8:00PM
Closing Remarks
8:00PM - 9:00PM
Reception
Reception
Previous Participants Have Included
H.E. Dick Schoof
Prime Minister of the Netherlands
H.E Josephine Teo
Minister for Digital Development and Information, Government of Singapore
H.E. Gobind Singh Deo
Minister of Digital, Government of Malaysia
Hon’ble Minister Shri Duddilla Sridhar Babu
Minister for Information Technology, Electronics & Communications, Industries & Commerce, and Legislative Affairs, State Government of Telangana, Government of India
H.E. Amandeep Singh Gill
Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies, United Nations
H.E. Philip Thigo
Special Envoy on Technology, Government of Kenya
H.E. Anne Marie Engtoft Meldgaard
Tech Ambassador, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Denmark
Secretary General Mathias Cormann
Secretary-General of the OECD
H.E. Ambassador Egriselda López
Permanent Representative of El Salvador to the United Nations
H.E. Ambassador Rein Tammsaar
Permanent Representative of Estonia to the United Nations
Prof. Stuart Russell
Director, The International Association for Safe and Ethical AI (IASEAI)
Prof. Yoshua Bengio
Scientific Director, LawZero
Sangbu Kim
Vice President for Digital, World Bank
Sangbu Kim
Vice President for Digital, World Bank
Maria Ressa
Co-Chair, Independent International Scientific Panel on AI
Maria Ressa
Co-Chair, Independent International Scientific Panel on AI
will.i.am
Founder and CEO, FYI.AI; Goodwill Ambassador, AI Skills Coalition; Member, AI for Global Good Commission
will.i.am
Founder and CEO, FYI.AI; Goodwill Ambassador, AI Skills Coalition; Member, AI for Global Good Commission
Jaan Tallinn
AI Investor & Founding Engineer, of Skype and Kazaa; co-founder, Future of Life Institute
Jaan Tallinn
AI Investor & Founding Engineer, of Skype and Kazaa; co-founder, Future of Life Institute
Dr. Eileen Donahoe
Former U.S. Special Envoy and Coordinator for Digital Freedom & Ambassador to the UNHRC; Founder and Managing Partner, Sympatico Ventures
Baroness Joanna Shields
Executive Chairman, Responsible AI Future Foundation (RAIFF)
Dr. Renata Dwan
Director, Tech Policy, Simon Institute
Dr. Chinmay Pandya
Pro Vice Chancellor, Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya University
Dr. Gabriela Ramos
Co-Chair, Task Force on Inequalities and Social Financial Disclosure & Former Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO
Dr. Adam Gleave
CEO, FAR.AI
Chris Meserole
Executive Director, Frontier Model Forum
Prof. Mohan Kankanhalli
Director, AI Institute, National University of Singapore
Amlan Mohanty
Fellow, Carnegie India & Lead Writer, India AI Governance Guidelines
Amitabh Kant
Former India G20 Sherpa & Former CEO, NITI Aayog
Dr. Andrew Forrest
Founder, Minderoo Foundation
Samir Chhabra
Director-General, Marketplace Framework Policy, Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada & Deputy Executive Director of the Canadian AI Safety Institute, Government of Canada
Abhishek Venkateswaran
National Project Officer, UNESCO India
Dr. Claire Melamed
Vice President, AI and Digital Cooperation, United Nations Foundation
Father Paolo Benanti
AI Advisor to Pope Francis
Prof. Jeanna Matthews
Professor of Computer Science, Clarkson University
Chris Pease
President and CEO, Foundation for Agentic Networks
Apoorv Iyer
Executive Vice President, HCLTech
Owen Larter
Senior Director and Head of Frontier Policy and Public Affairs, Google DeepMind
Owen Larter
Senior Director and Head of Frontier Policy and Public Affairs, Google DeepMind
Joslyn Barnhart
Senior Research Scientist, Google DeepMind
Natasha Crampton
Chief Responsible AI Officer, Microsoft
Rebecca Finlay
CEO, Partnership on AI
Dr. Rumman Chowdhury
CEO and Founder, Humane Intelligence
Ashish Tewari
Head, Responsible AI Office, Infosys
Prof. Balaraman Ravindran
Director, Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI), IIT Madras India
Prof. Virginia Dignum
Director, AI Policy Lab, Umeå University & Member, UN High Level Advisory Body on AI
H.E. Dick Schoof
Prime Minister of the Netherlands
Secretary General Mathias Cormann
Secretary-General of the OECD
H.E Josephine Teo
Minister for Digital Development and Information of Singapore
Mr. Jaan Tallinn
AI Investor & Founding Engineer, of Skype and Kazaa; co-founder, Future of Life Institute
H.E. Gobind Singh Deo
Minister of Digital, Malaysia
Dr. Gabriela Ramos
Co-Chair of the Task Force on Inequalities and Social Financial Disclosure & Former Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO
Mr. Sangbu Kim
World Bank's Vice President for Digital
Prof. Stuart Russell
Director, The International Association for Safe and Ethical AI (IASEAI)
H.E. Anne Marie Engtoft Meldgaard
Tech Ambassador, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Denmark
Dr. Chinmay Pandya
Pro Vice Chancellor, Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya University
Dr. Renata Dwan
Director, Tech Policy, Simon Institute
Prof. Yoshua Bengio
Scientific Director, LawZero
H.E. Ambassador Egriselda López
Permanent Representative of El Salvador to the UN
H.E. Ambassador Rein Tammsaar
Permanent Representative of Estonia to the UN
Hon’ble Minister Shri Duddilla Sridhar Babu
Minister for Information Technology, Electronics & Communications, Industries & Commerce, and Legislative Affairs, State Government of Telangana
Mr. Chris Meserole
Executive Director at the Frontier Model Forum
Ms. Rajni Singh
Big Data & AI Senior Manager, Accenture
Shri Sanjay Kumar
Special Chief Secretary, Industry, Commerce, IT & Communications, State Government of Telangana
Ms. Sunita Patnaik
Partner, DGA Group
Prof. Mohan Kankanhalli
Director, AI Institute, National University of Singapore
Dr. Adam Gleave
CEO, FAR.AI
Mr. Austin Mayron
Acting Director of the U.S. Center for AI Standards and Innovation
Mr. Amlan Mohanty
Fellow, Carnegie India & Lead Writer, India AI Governance Guidelines
Mr. Amitabh Kant
Former India G20 Sherpa & Former CEO of NITI Aayog
Dr. Andrew Forrest
Founder, Minderoo Foundation
Mr. Samir Chhabra
Director-General, Marketplace Framework Policy, Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada & Deputy Executive Director of the Canadian AI Safety Institute, Government of Canada
Mr. Abhishek Venkateswaran
National Project Officer, UNESCO India
Dr. Claire Melamed
Vice President, AI and Digital Cooperation, United Nations Foundation
Prof. Jeanna Matthews
Professor of Computer Science, Clarkson University
Father Paolo Benanti
AI Advisor to Pope Francis (virtual)
Dr. Jason Hoelscher-Obermaier
Director of Research, Apart Research
Mr. Chris Pease
President and CEO, Foundation for Agentic Networks
Ms. Amanda Craig
General Manager, Responsible AI Public Policy, Microsoft
Mr. Apoorv Iyer
Executive Vice President | HCLTech
Mr. Combiz Abdolrahimi
Global Head of Government Affairs & Public Policy at ServiceNow
Ms. Joslyn Barnhart
Senior Research Scientist at Google DeepMind
Mr. Ashish Tewari
Head — Responsible AI Office, Infosys
Prof. Balaraman Ravindran
Director, Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI), IIT Madras India
Mr. Bruno Galizzi
Senior Policy Associate, SaferAI
Dr. Carina Prunkl
Researcher, INRIA (Regalia); Lead Writer, 2026 International AI Safety Report
Dr. Chloé Touzet
Policy Lead, SaferAI
Mr. Christian Troncoso
Principal, Global AI Policy at Amazon Web Services
Mr. Connor Dunlop
Director of Strategy, Lucid Computing
Mr. Cyrus Hodes
Co-Founder, AI Safety Connect
Mr. Denise Wong
Assistant Chief Executive, Data Protection and Innovation Group, Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore.
Dr. Eileen Donahoe
Former U.S. Special Envoy and Coordinator for Digital Freedom & Ambassador to the UNHRC; Founder and Managing Partner, Sympatico Ventures
Ms. Gaia Marcus
Director, Ada Lovelace Institute
Mr. Frederic Werner
Chief, Strategic Engagement, International Telecommunications Union
Prof. Hemant Bhargava
Distinguished Professor, UC Davis
Ms. Imane Bello
Multilateral Engagement Lead, Future of Life Institute
Baroness Joanna Shields
Executive Chairman, Responsible AI Future Foundation (RAIFF)
Ms. Karine Perset
Deputy Head of AI and Emerging Digital Technologies Division, OECD.AI, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Prof. Kee-Eung Kim
Director, National AI Research Lab of Korea
Ms. Lucilla Sioli
Director of the European AI Office, European Commission
Dr. Mark Nitzberg
Interim Executive Director, IASEAI
Mr. Michael Sellitto
Head of Global Affairs, Anthropic
Ms. Natasha Crampton
Chief Responsible AI Officer at Microsoft
Mr. Nicolas Miailhe
Co-Founder, AI Safety Connect
Ms. Nicole Foster
Director of Global Affairs at Amazon Web Services
Ms. Niki Iliadis
Director Global AI Governance, The Future Society
Mr. Owen Larter
Senior Director and Head of Frontier Policy and Public Affairs at Google DeepMind
Mr. Osama Manzar
Founder and Director, Digital Empowerment Foundation
Ms. Pauline Charazac
Head of Policy Engagement, CeSIA
Prof. Pulkit Verma
Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Madras
Ms. Rebecca Finlay
CEO at Partnership on AI
Prof. Robert Trager
Co-Director, Oxford Martin AI Governance Initiative
Mr. Robert Opp
Chief, Strategic Engagement, International Chief Digital Officer, United Nations Development Programme
Dr. Rumman Chowdhury
CEO and Founder, Humane Intelligence
Prof. Sarah Erfani
Professor, University of Melbourne
Mr. Stephen Clare
Lead Writer, International Safety Report
Ms. Stephanie Ifayemi
Senior Managing Director of Policy, Partnership on AI
Ms. Terah Lyons
Managing Director & Global Head of AI & Data Policy at JPMorgan Chase
Dr. Urvashi Aneja
Founder & Director, Digital Futures Lab
Prof. Yannis Ioannidis
President of the Association for Computing Machinery
Prof. Virginia Dignum
Director, AI Policy Lab, Umeå University & Member, UN High Level Advisory Body on AI