Reflections from Geneva: Community, Governance, and Action at AI for Good 2026
- WAI CONTENT TEAM
- Jul 21
- 3 min read
The ITU AI for Good Global Summit, the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance, and the WSIS Process brought international delegates to Geneva to address how artificial intelligence is deployed and regulated. Returning to the summit for a second consecutive year, Women in AI brought a significantly expanded delegation—including Alessandra Sala (WAI President), Hala Hibri (WAI Switzerland Ambassador), Katherine Bustos Rodas (WAI Europe Lead), Auxane Boch (WAI Germany Ambassador), Monishaa Mirchandani (WAI Benelux), Taime Sylvester (WAI Namibia), Ines Knäpper, and Benjamin Fuchs (WAI Switzeland)— to ensure diverse perspectives actively shape technical standards, infrastructure policy, and talent pipelines.
Below is an overview of how our speakers, ambassadors, and regional representatives contributed to the official summit program and floor engagements throughout the week.
Shaping Global AI Standards & Governance
Technical standards set the global rules for AI deployment, making inclusive leadership a necessity at the policy table.
Advancing Women’s Leadership in AI & Standards: Building on previous summit contributions, WAI President Alessandra Sala and WAI Switzerland Ambassador Hala Hibri took the stage alongside global policymakers. They addressed how representative leadership directly improves technical governance and outlined concrete strategies to support women across the AI talent pipeline.
Broadening the Governance Dialogue: Alessandra Sala represented WAI across multiple summit tracks, contributing to high-level panels on global AI governance, research, and policy frameworks throughout the week.
Technical Authenticity, Demos & Information Integrity
Addressing misinformation and synthetic media requires combining technical frameworks with clear, accessible messaging. Within the AI and Multimedia Authenticity Standards Collaboration, our team presented working tools alongside a dedicated film premiere:
Film Premiere — "Can You Trust?": Directed by WAI Kenya Ambassador Lisa Russell in collaboration with WAI President Alessandra Sala, this short film premiered during the AI and Multimedia Authenticity Standards workshop. The film provided a real-world visual reference point on deepfakes to ground the panel's technical discussion on digital provenance standards. (Watch it here).
STOP&SCAN: A social science-backed framework giving users a structured routine to evaluate online content prior to distribution (stopandscan.org).
Agentic AI Bot: An automated toolkit live on Telegram and Discord assisting users in evaluating suspicious media in real time.
Policy as Code: A technical initiative mapping cross-border AI regulations to test foundations for multi-jurisdictional compliance frameworks.
For further info, check out Alessandra Sala's post-event Linkedin post.
Infrastructure & AI Readiness: "THE SIGNAL" Premiere
Moving past high-level theory to look at the practical infrastructure, data gaps, and representation challenges facing developing nations requires distinct framing.
From AI Promise to AI Readiness: Emmy®-winning filmmaker and WAI Kenya Ambassador Lisa Russell premiered her 3-part speculative narrative film. The screening framed the real-world consequences of global cooperation failures before international partners presented their infrastructure and digital divide commitments.
Mentorship and Pipeline Development
Long-term change requires direct investment in the next generation of technical leaders.
Girls in ICT Day: WAI Switzerland Ambassador Hala Hibri led dedicated sessions focused on practical mentorship, sharing career pathways, and encouraging young women to pursue STEM and AI fields.
Regional Delegation & Floor Engagements
Beyond the main stages, our global Attendance Delegation was active across the floor all week, building regional partnerships, connecting with allies, and expanding our collaborative network. Special thanks to our delegation members on the ground.
Next Steps
Having a strong presence in Geneva underscored the importance of direct engagement in international standards bodies and multi-stakeholder forums.
Thank you to everyone who connected with our team on the floor, attended our sessions, or tested our tools. We are leveraging the momentum from this week as we expand our working groups and prepare even bigger initiatives for next year's program.
If you are interested in collaborating with Women in AI on joint research, standards development, regional events, or diversity initiatives:
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