In March 2025, UNIDIR organized its inaugural Global Conference on AI, Security and Ethics (AISE) at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. Led by UNIDIR’s Security and Technology Programme, the conference provided an agile response to rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI), which have placed this technology at the forefront of today’s global policy discussions.
Ahead of the conference's second edition, a series of three reports – the first of the AISE Markers series – takes stock of the key takeaways from the previous year and provides an initial basis and scaffolding for UNIDIR’s Global Conference on AI, Security and Ethics 2026. By acting as a bridge between editions, the AISE Markers series ensures that each conference is built on solid ground and constitutes a natural evolution of the discussions held in the previous conference.
This first report provides a structured account of where the conversation on governance stood in 2025. It offers an overview of shared understandings and possible areas of tension, and identifies issues that remain unresolved and may subsequently serve as a baseline for the 2026 edition. Accompanying reports will cover the state of technology and use cases.
Citation: Yasmin Afina and Jan Hendrik Mannsperger, “AISE Markers Series – Benchmark I: Governance, Insights from the Global Conference on AI, Security and Ethics 2025”, Geneva: UNIDIR, 2026.