Indian diplomat Amandeep Singh Gill becomes UN chief's envoy on technology

Senior Indian diplomat Amandeep Singh Gill has been appointed by United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, as his Envoy on Technology. 

He will be succeeding Maria-Francesca Spatolisano, an Italian diplomat, who has been serving as Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs by Guterres since December 2018.

Gill was India’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva from 2016-to 2018. He is also the Chief Executive Officer of the International Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence Research Collaborative (I-DAIR) project, based at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva.

Gill was the Executive Director and Co-Lead of the United Nations Secretary-General's High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation (2018-2019)

In addition, he has helped secure high-impact international consensus recommendations on regulating Artificial Intelligence (Al) in lethal autonomous weapon systems in 2017 and 2018, the draft Al ethics recommendation of UNESCO in 2020, and a new international platform on digital health and Al.

UN described Gill as a "thought leader on digital technology" who has a solid understanding of how to leverage the digital transformation responsibly and inclusively for progress on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Gill joined India's diplomatic service in 1992 and served in various capacities in disarmament and strategic technologies and international security affairs, with postings in Tehran and Colombo. He was also a visiting scholar at Stanford University.

Gill holds a PhD in Nuclear Learning in Multilateral Forums from King's College, London, a Bachelor of Technology in Electronics and Electrical Communications from Panjab University, Chandigarh and an Advanced Diploma in French History and Language from Geneva University.