UN and ITU Pull Jensen Huang, Andy Jassy Into One AI Governance Body
Sakana AI's Ren Ito joins 40+ global tech and government leaders on the newly formed UN-ITU AI for Good Global Commission
- New UN-ITU body: The AI for Good Global Commission launched with 44 founding members including heads of state and top tech CEOs. See full list
- Sakana AI's seat: Co-Founder Ren Ito is the only Japanese AI lab representative on the commission, joining Jensen Huang, Andy Jassy, and Brad Smith.
- Co-chaired by: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, with ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin as vice-chair.
- Inaugural meeting: July 8 in Geneva, during the AI for Good Global Summit 2026 (July 7-10).
- Key mission: Bridge AI access gaps for 2.2 billion people still offline, and shape global AI governance norms before binding regulations exist.
- Notable absences: Google DeepMind, Meta, and OpenAI are not among the named founding members.
The United Nations and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have launched the AI for Good Global Commission, a new high-level body bringing together heads of state, Big Tech CEOs, and international organization leaders to shape the future of AI governance. Among its 44 founding members is Ren Ito, Co-Founder and Chairman of Tokyo-based Sakana AI, making him the sole representative of a Japanese AI lab on the commission.
A Room Full of Heavy Hitters
Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, Salesforce Chair and CEO Marc Benioff, and ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin announced the launch of the commission. It brings together more than 40 Founding Members, including Heads of State and Government, industry CEOs and top executives, and Heads of UN agencies, to help define practical pathways to strengthen trust, expand access, and unlock AI's potential to solve real-world challenges.
The tech roster reads like a who's who of AI infrastructure and frontier labs. Tech leaders include Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark, Cohere co-founder Aidan Gomez, Microsoft president Brad Smith, and Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang. On the policy side, founding members also include policymakers from Kazakhstan, Namibia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Nigeria.
Sakana AI's Ren Ito rounds out the list as one of the few representatives from Asia's independent AI ecosystem. Ito's co-founder David Ha, the company's CEO, previously worked at Google Brain and is known for research on self-organizing systems, while Ito himself has a background spanning Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mercari, and Stability AI. Sakana AI became Japan's fastest unicorn after one year in business, backed by Nvidia and a broad spectrum of Japanese enterprises including the three Japanese megabanks.