Key points
- A new UN scientific report says artificial intelligence is advancing faster than governments can regulate it.
- The report highlights AI’s growing contributions to healthcare, agriculture, education and scientific research.
- It warns that without stronger safeguards, AI could deepen inequality, spread misinformation, threaten human rights and increase cybercrime.
- The UN says access to advanced AI remains concentrated in the United States and China, leaving many developing countries at risk of being left behind.
Main story
The United Nations has warned that artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving at a pace that governments and existing regulatory systems are struggling to match, raising concerns that one of the world’s most transformative technologies could outgrow the safeguards designed to govern it.
The warning is contained in a preliminary report released on Wednesday by the UN Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence ahead of the inaugural UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance scheduled for July 6–7 in Geneva.
The report describes AI as a technology capable of accelerating progress across multiple sectors, noting that it has already predicted the structures of more than 200 million proteins while significantly speeding up drug discovery, vaccine development and research into antibiotic resistance.
Beyond healthcare, the report says AI-powered early warning systems are helping detect food insecurity before it escalates into humanitarian crises, while doctors are using AI to identify diseases such as breast cancer earlier. Health workers in developing countries are also deploying AI tools in local languages to improve patient care.
The panel said AI is supporting scientific research, improving accessibility for people with disabilities, expanding personalised education and providing new mental health support tools.
Despite these advances, the report warns that the same technology could become a source of significant global risk if governance fails to keep pace.
According to the panel, AI could deepen existing inequalities, fuel misinformation, threaten human rights, disrupt labour markets and concentrate enormous power in the hands of a small number of governments and technology companies.
The report notes that AI capabilities have advanced rapidly due to improvements in computing power, training data and machine learning techniques. Modern AI systems can now write software, solve complex scientific problems, create realistic images, audio and video, and increasingly act as autonomous “AI agents” capable of planning tasks and using digital tools with minimal human supervision.
Researchers cited in the report estimate that the complexity of tasks AI systems can perform has been doubling every few months.
The panel also highlighted growing concerns over AI’s misuse, warning that it could accelerate the spread of online abuse, sexually explicit deepfakes and child sexual abuse material, while making misinformation increasingly difficult to distinguish from factual information.
It said criminals are already exploiting AI for cyberattacks, fraud and sophisticated social engineering scams, while some AI systems have been linked to harmful behavioural reinforcement that could contribute to mental health crises.
Environmental concerns also featured prominently, with the report noting that the large data centres powering advanced AI consume enormous amounts of electricity and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.
The report further found that access to advanced AI remains highly unequal. The United States controls roughly three-quarters of the computing capacity supporting the world’s leading AI supercomputers, while China accounts for about 15 per cent, giving both countries control of roughly 90 per cent of global high-end AI computing power.
Many developing countries, it said, lack the computing infrastructure, technical expertise, investment, data and local-language resources needed to fully develop or govern AI independently, forcing them to depend on technologies they cannot adequately inspect or adapt to local needs.
The issues
The report argues that AI governance has become one of the defining policy challenges of the decade.
While AI has enormous potential to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals through better healthcare, education, agriculture and scientific innovation, weak regulation could allow the technology to amplify existing inequalities, undermine democracy and create new security risks.
The panel says today’s governance systems were not designed for technology advancing this rapidly and calls for stronger international cooperation, independent evaluation, common standards and greater investment in digital infrastructure and technical capacity, particularly in developing countries.
What’s being said
“The window to establish effective global governance remains open but may not stay that way for long.” — UN Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence
What’s next
The preliminary findings will be presented to governments during the inaugural UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva, while a more comprehensive global scientific assessment is expected to be released in 2027.
Countries are also expected to discuss frameworks for improving AI safety, transparency, accountability and equitable access during the dialogue.
Bottom line
The UN says artificial intelligence has the potential to transform healthcare, education and economic development, but unless global governance catches up with technological progress, the benefits could be overshadowed by growing risks to society, democracy and global equality.
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