UN panel urges culture-specific SDG as AI, digital divide threaten cultural diversity

At a United Nations high-level interactive dialogue on culture and sustainable development, a panel of artists, civil-society leaders and academics called on member states to treat culture as a distinct pillar of global development and warned that digital technologies — particularly generative artificial intelligence and concentrated online platforms — risk deepening cultural exclusion.

The International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (IFCCD) and other speakers urged a specific culture-related Sustainable Development Goal, arguing it would help address imbalances in cultural trade, platform concentration and the digital divide. "Culture and creativity account for 3.1% of global gross domestic product and 6.2% of all employment," IFCCD Secretary General Marie Jolie Desroches said, citing a UNESCO report, and she added that cultural exports reached about $389.1 billion in 2019.

Panelists said those economic figures mask stark representation gaps online and new risks from AI. "The development of generative artificial intelligence is based on the mass pillaging of protected works and the nonconsensual use of the voices and images of artists," Desroches said, adding that dominant digital players can "stifle innovation and limit opportunities for smaller firms." Professor Lance Weiler of Columbia University described the current platforms as "algorithmic tyranny" that flattens nuance and ‘‘monetize[s] us,’’ and he urged investment in community-rooted "creative infrastructure."

Why it matters: panelists linked cultural inclusion to economic opportunity, human rights and sustainable development. They said a dedicated SDG would create policy leverage for funding, data-sovereignty protections and international cooperation to preserve languages, artistic livelihoods and cultural heritage as the digital transformation accelerates.

Panel evidence and proposals

Speakers gave country and organizational examples intended as models or warnings. Marie Jolie outlined IFCCD advocacy for a "Culture 2030" goal and cited uneven online representation — African creative content, she said, represents under 3% of works available online. Javier Tournay, founder of Tournay Gallery, described how museums and galleries digitized collections and how online communities have revived interest in older photographic techniques; he warned that energy-intensive blockchain activity raises environmental and social concerns. "Policymakers and the international community should seek a global commitment to renewable energy and clean technologies to power the digital revolution," Tournay said.

Mariana Kamara, founder and CEO of Mariana Fashion Production, described a private-sector approach to preservation: a digital archive of African textile techniques, AI-assisted visualization tools for designers, mobile training for artisans and licensing to protect makers' rights. "If we don't digitize, archive, and innovate with our culture, others will do it for us and profit from it," Kamara said.

Academic and civic proposals emphasized open, community-centered approaches. Lance Weiler described Columbia's public prototypes (including a project that trained an AI with community input) as examples of "AI as a mirror, a prototype of ethical machine learning centered on mutual care." Sabine Blaisein of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute argued that digital platforms must be created "for us and by us," centering Afro‑Indigenous knowledge and data sovereignty.

States and civil society: initiatives and pleas

Several member-state representatives presented national programs. The Russian Federation described a national cultural portal with about 14,000 items and a national electronic library of roughly 6,000,000 digital copies, plus 67 creative-industry schools serving roughly 6,000 young people using VR/AR tools. The representative of Nigeria highlighted the Creative Leap Acceleration Program and a Creative Economy Development Fund providing grants and loans to music, film, fashion and digital arts entrepreneurs, and reiterated support for a dedicated culture SDG.

Civil-society speakers stressed urgent inclusion for marginalized and colonized peoples. James Phinis, speaking for Bonaire, said the island's native language and population face rapid erosion and asked whether sustainable development can be realized when international human-rights instruments and protections are absent locally. A representative from Yemen's Maona for Human Rights and Immigration urged inclusion of Yemeni culture in reconstruction and international digital initiatives, and other NGOs gave examples of community platforms and hybrid events that expand grassroots participation.

Policy items raised

Panelists and respondents coalesced around several policy needs: a culture-specific SDG or explicit targets in the post-2030 framework; legal safeguards for artists' intellectual property and compensation when AI systems use protected works; data-sovereignty and community control over cultural archives; targeted funding for digital literacy and infrastructure in low-income countries; and environmental standards for energy-intensive digital technologies.

What panelists did not decide

The session was a discussion; members did not vote or adopt formal resolutions during the event. Multiple speakers urged international action and funding, but no formal commitments, timelines or technical specifications were adopted during the session.

The conversation underscored tensions between global platforms and local custodians of culture, and speakers repeatedly returned to three linked risks: unequal access to digital infrastructure, concentrated market power in platform intermediaries, and the unregulated use of cultural materials in AI training. Several speakers called for stronger regulation and international cooperation to protect cultural diversity, including explicit references to data rights and copyright protections for creators.

Looking ahead

Speakers asked member states and the United Nations system to sustain the conversation into post-2030 development planning and to involve civil-society organizations and indigenous communities in designing digital cultural tools. As Marie Jolie put it, "We need a specific cultural goal in the future global development framework" to ensure current and future generations can "be connected, with respect for and celebration of their diversity."