Canada's Lametti stresses AI diplomacy
UN Ambassador David Lametti discussed Canada's role in AI diplomacy, emphasising multilateral approaches, law and dialogue as ways to stabilise global AI governance. The remarks were made during a recent conversation highlighted in social posts about international AI engagement. (x.com)
Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations, David Lametti, said Canada sees artificial intelligence diplomacy as a job for law, dialogue and multilateral institutions — not unilateral moves. (onestnetwork.com) Lametti made the remarks in an interview published April 10, 2026 by ONEST, months after he formally took up his post as Canada’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York. Prime Minister Mark Carney announced his appointment on September 18, 2025, and Lametti presented his credentials to Secretary-General António Guterres on December 3, 2025. (onestnetwork.com) (international.gc.ca) (press.un.org) Canada put a lawyer and former justice minister in the role. Lametti served as minister of justice and attorney general from 2019 to 2023, and Canada’s official biography says he later taught privacy and artificial intelligence governance at McGill University. (international.gc.ca) The diplomacy question is getting sharper because the United Nations has spent the past two years building a basic framework for global artificial intelligence rules. In March 2024, the General Assembly adopted its first resolution on “safe, secure and trustworthy” artificial intelligence systems, with support from more than 120 countries. (news.un.org) That process widened in 2025. The United Nations said all 193 member states took part in a high-level General Assembly meeting on artificial intelligence governance in September 2025, alongside scientists, companies and civil society groups. (news.un.org) The United Nations push has focused on a practical problem: powerful systems are spreading faster than common rules. A 2024 United Nations advisory report said 118 countries were outside major international artificial intelligence governance initiatives, and only seven countries were part of all of them. (news.un.org) (digitallibrary.un.org) That same advisory report urged the United Nations to build a more inclusive governance architecture based on international cooperation. It proposed seven recommendations and said its work drew on more than 2,000 participants, more than 50 consultation sessions and more than 250 written submissions. (digitallibrary.un.org) Lametti’s emphasis on law and dialogue fits that United Nations track and his own background in legal scholarship. Canada’s biography for him describes an academic career in intellectual property, property law, privacy and artificial intelligence governance before and after his time in elected office. (international.gc.ca) The immediate test for that approach is whether middle powers such as Canada can help turn broad United Nations language into working norms that more than a handful of countries will use. Lametti’s message in the ONEST interview was that Canada wants that work done through the institutions already on the table. (onestnetwork.com) (news.un.org)
