Dodge past live coding sessions, AI refresher courses, an obstacle course of gizmos, and people wearing glowing green silent-disco-style headphones broadcasting UN panel discussions, and you might end up in the Networking Zone, on a rotating seating contraption called UFOTECH that resembles a lazy Susan. This was the scene at the AI for Good Summit, organized by the United Nations' International Telecommunication Union (ITU), where representatives from the private and public sectors gathered to discuss how to harness artificial intelligence for the benefit of humanity, according to a report by WIRED's Chris Stokel-Walker.
Summit's Optimistic Vision vs. Reality Check
"Our conviction that artificial intelligence, deployed responsibly, could help solve humanity's most pressing problems—from hunger to disease to a warming planet," Doreen Bogdan-Martin, secretary-general of the ITU, said in a keynote on the main stage. But that optimism was tempered throughout the 106,000-square-meter convention center on the fringes of Geneva's airport district. "What good means—and what good it does humanity—was a question riven throughout the conference," WIRED reported, noting that sessions were "backed by a drumbeat of worry that indifferent deployment by unchecked corporate monopolies is already hardwiring global inequality and eroding human rights."
Skepticism from the Front Lines
For some on the front lines, the tech industry's utopian veneer has already worn off. Speaking on the sidelines, Giulio Coppi, senior humanitarian officer at campaign group Access Now, called out the humanitarian and public sectors' overreliance on big tech. "We should be out of the age of innocence," Coppi said, demanding that organizations stop treating tech companies "as your best friends." He pointed to a decade of opaque, multimillion-dollar deals funded by public money. "You can't even explain what's inside your tech stack, because it has kept changing," he warned.
Tensions escalated when Pro-Palestine activists stormed the stage during a keynote by Amazon chief technology officer Werner Vogels, alleging that the company's technology is being used by Israel against Palestinians. They were eventually bundled out of the venue.
| Perspective | Key Voice | Core Message |
|---|---|---|
| Optimistic (ITU) | Doreen Bogdan-Martin | AI can solve hunger, disease, climate change |
| Humanitarian critical | Giulio Coppi (Access Now) | Overreliance on opaque big-tech deals |
| Engineering pragmatist | Vijay Janapa Reddi (Harvard) | 'Good' is too vague to engineer; AI rarely lands in practice |
| Development advocate | Syed Munir Khasru (Institute) | Compute is development infrastructure, not just tech |
"When we're talking about AI, we love the hype, we get excited about it," said Vijay Janapa Reddi, an engineering professor at Harvard University, over the din of competing sessions. "The damn thing never actually lands in practice." The problem, he explained, is that "good" is too vague a standard to engineer against. "When you're an engineer, good means nothing. I can't build you something that is good. A plane that flies for five minutes ain't no good."
The Compute Divide as a Development Problem
Much of the global debate around AI is now framed around access: who can use the models, who can buy the chips, and who is excluded from the compute economy. This is part of the reason why the Trump administration has implemented, then lifted, export controls on leading frontier AI models, and China is reportedly mulling making its open-weight models less open. Tightening access and cutting out poorer countries can leave them dependent on foreign infrastructure platforms and standards.
In a session on AI hardware and the widening digital divide, speakers argued that compute is no longer merely a technology problem, but a development problem. "If we mean AI for good, meaning compute for all, we must recognize that this is [about] development infrastructure, not just technology," said Syed Munir Khasru, chairman of the Institute (the source text cuts off before the full name). The statement underscores a critical challenge for enterprise technology leaders: ensuring that the infrastructure supporting AI—whether in supply chain, logistics, or other sectors—does not perpetuate inequality by concentrating compute power in a few wealthy nations and corporations.
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