South Africa Advocates for Global AI Governance Framework at UN General Assembly

South Africa is actively pursuing a global framework for Artificial Intelligence governance, with its Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Mxolisi Sizo Nkosi, announcing a push for the 81st UN General Assembly to issue a statement committing member states to this goal. This initiative follows President Cyril Ramaphosa's earlier call at the BRICS summit for an international mechanism for independent scientific evaluation of AI, emphasizing human control, incident reporting, stronger safeguards, and investment in sovereign AI capacity for developing economies.

The country's strategy involves simultaneously advocating for this governance argument through both BRICS and the UN, highlighting the potential devastating impact of AI without proper guardrails. South Africa's position is consistent across various forums, including its domestic financial regulator's decision to align with international AI principles before drafting its own, underscoring the belief that effective AI governance requires a scale larger than individual states.

Critically, South Africa's approach distinguishes itself by linking AI governance with development and addressing inequality. Unlike Western AI safety discussions that primarily focus on catastrophic risks, South Africa's proposals integrate the need for developing countries to build and assess AI capabilities. This perspective ensures that global AI rules do not disadvantage nations lacking the resources to develop or evaluate advanced AI systems, promoting a more equitable global AI landscape. The country also notes the involvement of other African nations, such as Benin and Senegal, in submitting their own governance frameworks to UN dialogues.