GENEVA — A United Nations scientific panel has urged governments to accelerate the development of international frameworks for governing artificial intelligence, warning that regulatory and scientific understanding is lagging behind rapid technological advances, according to findings presented ahead of a global policy forum opening in Geneva on Monday.
The Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence, composed of 40 experts from across regions and established under a UN General Assembly mandate in 2025, said in a preliminary assessment that AI systems are evolving faster than governments’ ability to evaluate risks and implement safeguards.
The panel’s report, released earlier this month, is being presented to member states at the inaugural UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance, which runs from July 6–7 and brings together governments, industry representatives, academics and civil society to discuss coordinated approaches to AI oversight.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at the opening of the dialogue that AI was “advancing at runaway speed” and stressed the need for collective governance to ensure the technology remains safe, fair and inclusive.
According to the panel’s findings, AI capabilities are expanding across sectors including health, education, science and security, but the absence of shared global standards is creating governance gaps. The report highlights risks ranging from misinformation and cybersecurity threats to broader concerns about human rights, democratic processes and unequal access to AI benefits.
The panel warned that current evaluation and oversight mechanisms often rely heavily on information provided by AI developers, and said independent verification systems are not yet widely established, complicating efforts to assess system safety at scale.
It also noted that uneven global access to AI infrastructure could deepen inequalities between countries with advanced computing capacity and those without, potentially widening existing economic and technological divides if governance frameworks are not coordinated internationally.
The scientific body said its work is intended to provide an evidence base for policymakers rather than propose binding regulations, and will continue producing annual assessments and thematic reports to inform future UN deliberations.
The Global Dialogue is expected to feed into subsequent UN-led discussions on AI governance scheduled for 2027 in New York, where member states are due to review progress on developing shared approaches to emerging technologies.
