AI4COP at CBD COP17

Co-hosted withMinistry of High-Tech Industry and Artificial Intelligence of the Republic of Armenia
The Cascade in Yerevan by day, its terraces and fountains rising to the monument at the top, with Mount Ararat behind the city.
UN Biodiversity Conference · Yerevan, 19 to 30 October 2026
Poster: AI4COP: Sovereignty-Aligned AI for Biodiversity Diplomacy, Tuesday 27 October 2026, 15:00 to 16:00, Armenian Pavilion, Blue Zone.

CBD COP17 side event

AI4COP: Sovereignty-Aligned AI for Biodiversity Diplomacy

Oct27
Tuesday 27 October 2026
15:00 to 16:00 (Yerevan time, GMT+4)
Armenian Pavilion, Blue Zone
Presentation area, COP17 badge needed
Hosted by
Youth Negotiators Academy, GainForest and the Ministry of High-Tech Industry and Artificial Intelligence of the Republic of Armenia
The session

AI now shapes how Parties prepare their positions, how delegations read draft texts, and how decisions are carried out at home. Most of these tools are built and hosted by a few companies in a few countries. Who controls the sensitive data? Whose values do the models carry? Can every country use AI on its own terms?

H.E. Dr. Gevorg Mantashyan, Armenia's Deputy Minister of High-Tech Industry and Artificial Intelligence, opens the session with an address and then joins the panel.

At the session we launch PACE, four principles for sovereignty-aligned AI in environmental multilateralism: Participation, Accountability, Consent and Equity. Working groups drafted them at the AI4PG workshop at ETH Zurich in July. In Yerevan we open them for public comment.

Speakers
  • H.E. Dr. Gevorg MantashyanOpening address and panel
    Deputy Minister of High-Tech Industry and Artificial Intelligence, Republic of Armenia
  • Veena BalakrishnanModerator
    Co-Founder and Co-Director, Youth Negotiators Academy
  • Prof. Millie Chapman
    Assistant Professor of Environmental Policy, ETH Zurich
  • Marie-Claire Graf
    Co-Founder and Co-Director, Youth Negotiators Academy
  • Dr. David Dao
    Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, GainForest

More speakers to be announced.

An opening address, then a panel and open Q&A. 60 minutes, in English. The pavilion is inside the Blue Zone, so you need a COP17 badge. Allow time for the queue at the entrance.

Invitation: Sovereignty-Aligned AI for Environmental Diplomacy Dinner, Thursday 29 October 2026, 18:30 to 21:30, Yerevan.

Second dinner of the series

Sovereignty-Aligned AI for Environmental Diplomacy Dinner

Oct29
Thursday 29 October 2026
18:30 to 21:30 (Yerevan time, GMT+4)
Yerevan, Armenia
Address on registration
Hosted by
Youth Negotiators Academy, GainForest, Protocol Labs and the Ministry of High-Tech Industry and Artificial Intelligence of the Republic of Armenia
The evening

In August, at UNCCD COP17 in Ulaanbaatar, a first dinner started a coalition of AI developers, negotiators, UN bodies and governments to agree shared principles for AI in multilateral diplomacy.

In Yerevan we sit down again, over food and informal conversation, to work through the values sovereignty-aligned AI should hold and the principles that should govern it. The evening follows the PACE launch two days earlier.

Notes from the first dinner are on the interest group page.

Free. Register on Luma and the hosts confirm your place.

Flyers, cards and post text

Free to share as they are. Every card carries the dates, the places and ai4cop.org/cbd-cop17, so it works without a caption.

Post text
Newsletters, programmes, event listings

Who controls the AI behind multilateral decisions? AI4COP, an initiative of the Youth Negotiators Academy and GainForest, holds two events at CBD COP17 in Yerevan, co-hosted with Armenia's Ministry of High-Tech Industry and Artificial Intelligence. On Tuesday 27 October, 15:00 to 16:00, at the Armenian Pavilion in the Blue Zone, H.E. Dr. Gevorg Mantashyan, Armenia's Deputy Minister of High-Tech Industry and Artificial Intelligence, gives the opening address and joins the panel. The session launches PACE, four principles for sovereignty-aligned AI (Participation, Accountability, Consent and Equity), and opens them for public comment. On Thursday 29 October, 18:30 to 21:30, a dinner in Yerevan brings negotiators, UN bodies, AI developers and governments together to work through them. Details: https://www.ai4cop.org/cbd-cop17

Tags and handles

#COP17Armenia #CBDCOP17 #AI4COP

  • Youth Negotiators Academy: X @youthnegotiator, Instagram @youthnegotiators
  • GainForest: X @GainForestNow, Instagram @gainforest
QR code for https://www.ai4cop.org/cbd-cop17
This page
ai4cop.org/cbd-cop17
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Both events are co-hosted with the Ministry of High-Tech Industry and Artificial Intelligence of the Republic of Armenia. AI4COP is convened by GainForest and the Youth Negotiators Academy, with support from Protocol Labs and the Robert Bosch Stiftung. Both events belong to the Sovereign AI Interest Group, which meets at all three Rio conferences this year. Questions, or someone we should invite? Write to team@gainforest.net.