UNITED NATIONS, September 23, 2026 — Britain will place artificial intelligence at the centre of its presidency of the G20 next year, Prime Minister Andy Burnham said on Tuesday, outlining plans to seek common international principles for the development and use of the technology.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly, Burnham said the UK would use its leadership of the forum to pursue agreement among the world’s major economies on safety, transparency and access in artificial intelligence.
“I am going to put AI at the heart of the UK’s G20 presidency next year,” Burnham said.
He said the British government would work with G20 members towards “a single set of global principles and standards” intended to improve transparency, widen access to information and strengthen preparedness for the risks associated with rapidly developing AI systems.
The announcement places AI governance alongside the G20’s established focus on global economic stability, trade, development and financial cooperation. It also reflects growing pressure on governments to coordinate their approach to a technology that is advancing faster than many existing regulatory systems.
The G20 brings together the world’s largest economies, including the United States, China, India, the European Union and other major industrial and emerging markets. Any agreement would need to bridge significant differences over data protection, national security, innovation, access to computing resources and the role of private technology companies.
Burnham did not set out a detailed timetable or explain how the proposed principles would be enforced. He also did not identify which areas of AI regulation would be addressed first under the British presidency.
His comments suggest that the UK intends to use the G20 to move beyond separate national rules and voluntary commitments. Governments have adopted different approaches to AI, with some prioritising strict oversight of high-risk applications and others focusing on innovation and economic competitiveness.
The British government’s proposed emphasis on transparency and preparedness is likely to cover questions about how AI systems are trained, how their decisions can be examined and how governments should respond to misuse. The precise scope of the initiative, however, will depend on negotiations with other G20 members.
The announcement comes as artificial intelligence becomes a central issue in debates over employment, public services, cybersecurity and national defence. It has also generated concerns about disinformation, privacy, bias and the ability of regulators to keep pace with increasingly capable systems.
The UK has sought to position itself as a convening power in international discussions on AI. Its 2027 G20 presidency will give it an opportunity to bring together governments with sharply different political and economic interests, although securing a common framework is likely to prove difficult.
Any final agreement would also need to account for the different levels of technological capacity among G20 members. Developing economies have argued that global AI rules should not restrict access to tools that could support education, healthcare, public administration and economic growth.
Burnham said the British initiative would seek both safety and access, indicating that London wants the discussion to include the benefits of AI as well as its risks. The balance between encouraging innovation and imposing safeguards is expected to be one of the central issues in the negotiations.
Further details of Britain’s agenda are likely to emerge before the presidency formally begins. For now, the government has identified global AI standards as its leading priority for the G20 year, with the aim of securing broad principles that can be applied across different legal systems and national markets.
