UN creates 40-member scientific panel on AI to "provide impartial assessment on opportunities and risks"

The United Nations (UN) has created a global scientific panel on artificial intelligence (AI) with 40 members, it announced on 12/02/2026.

The first global scientific body dedicated to AI aims to provide independent, evidence-based assessments of AI's impact on society. "This marks a foundational step toward global scientific understanding of AI," declared António Guterres, UN Secretary-General.

The 40 experts are "from all five of the UN’s regions and from different backgrounds, including academia, private sector, civil society, government/international organisation and technical community. They have backgrounds in core technical AI expertise; applied AI, safety and infrastructure experience; and AI policy, ethics and impact," said the UN.

"We now have a multidisciplinary group of leading AI experts from across the globe, geographically diverse and gender-balanced, who will provide independent and impartial assessments of AI’s opportunities, risks and impacts - including to the new Global Dialogue on AI Governance," Guterres said.

For him, the panel will support decisions based on…