UAE AI Minister Pushes for Guardrails to Keep AI From Becoming 'Tyrannical'

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AI should not be judged by how powerful it becomes, but by who benefits from it, says UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence Omar Sultan Al Olama.

Speaking at the opening of the United Nations’ Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva, Al Olama argued that the next phase of AI development will depend less on technological breakthroughs than on the institutions that govern them.

As governments race to invest in frontier AI capabilities, attention is increasingly turning toward questions of governance, access, and accountability—issues that many experts argue will ultimately determine whether AI narrows or widens existing economic and geopolitical divides.

Addressing delegates from more than 100 countries and international organizations, Al Olama urged policymakers to adopt a “cautiously optimistic” approach to AI. Rather than viewing the technology through fear or unchecked enthusiasm, he argued, governments should focus on ensuring AI remains broadly accessible rather than concentrated in the hands of a few companies or countries.

Technology must be accessible to “the many … not just the few,” he said, warning that without deliberate governance, AI risks becoming “tyrannical” by reinforcing existing concentrations of economic and technological power.

Al Olama argued that achieving that objective requires more than expanding AI infrastructure. He called for stronger international institutions and independent judicial mechanisms to oversee AI governance across borders, suggesting that multilateral organizations such as the United Nations will play an increasingly important role in establishing common rules for the technology.

“The decisions we take today are not just for ourselves and our generation, but all generations to come,” he said. “We shouldn’t look at the future of technology with a pessimistic lens, but rather an optimistic one.”

The dialogue comes at a critical moment for global AI governance. Earlier this week, the UN’s independent Scientific Panel on AI warned that advances in AI are progressing faster than researchers can fully understand and faster than governments can regulate them. The panel cautioned that gaps in oversight could increase risks related to misinformation, security, inequality, and market concentration.

Those concerns were echoed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who used the summit to call for stronger safeguards around children’s use of AI technologies.

“No child should be a guinea pig for unregulated AI,” Guterres said, proposing an international AI Child Safety Pledge built around mandatory safety testing, zero tolerance for abuse, and crisis-response systems.

For the UAE, the governance debate aligns with a broader strategy that seeks to position the country as both an AI innovation hub and a leader in responsible AI policy. The country has spent more than a decade investing in AI capabilities while simultaneously introducing regulatory frameworks covering data governance, digital services, and online safety.

Most recently, it became the first Arab nation to prohibit children under 15 from using social media platforms, reflecting a broader emphasis on digital well-being alongside technological adoption.

As AI rapidly moves from deployment to becoming a foundational public infrastructure, the debate is also evolving. The central question is no longer simply how quickly governments can adopt AI, but whether they can build institutions capable of regulating it.