Artificial intelligence is progressing faster than scientists can fully understand it and beyond governments' ability to regulate it, a UN independent scientific panel warned on Wednesday.
Rapid advances mean the world has no assurances that the technology can be prevented from causing harm, a preliminary report by the UN's Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence found.
“The potential benefits of AI are enormous,” the report stated. “At the same time, the rapid pace of technological development and the breadth of potential applications present policymakers with significant challenges.”
Panel co-chair Maria Ressa told reporters in New York that policymakers "need evidence to make good decisions," but this often comes too late because of the speed of AI's development.
More than one billion people now use conversational AI every week, while development of the technology remains heavily concentrated in the US and China, raising concerns over growing global inequalities.
According to the report, the US accounts for 75 per cent of the computing power of the world's top 500 AI supercomputers, while China holds 15 per cent, with companies in the two countries developing almost all leading general-purpose AI models.
The panel also warned that increasingly capable AI agents could soon perform complex tasks with little or no human regulation, bringing major implications for labour markets, cyber security and scientific research.
The report, distributed to all 193 UN member states before next week's inaugural Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva, also highlighted a growing list of documented harms.
"Sycophantic AI behaviour, where AI responses reinforce users' existing beliefs regardless of accuracy, has been linked to several severe mental health incidents, including documented deaths," it stated.
The world "can no longer say we did not know", Ms Ressa said. "This report is the moment the world stops being able to say it didn't know."
She said the panel deliberately adopted a cautious approach, requiring a broad scientific consensus before including findings.
“There are 40 scientists from 37 countries, created by the UN to be independent. Our commitment is to the facts, the evidence and to humanity,” Ms Ressa said,
She said the report was “the best available evidence at this moment in a field that changes faster than any of us can write about".
Ms Ressa summarised the panel's conclusions in three points: “The pace is not slowing; the power is concentrating; and control is not guaranteed.”
“No expert today can promise you that the most advanced systems will do what you instruct it to do."
Co-chair Yoshua Bengio said AI represented “a turning point” because growing machine intelligence also meant increasing power.
“As this power grows, it can unlock great benefits if we act wisely, but it can also lead to many perils, in particular if some in humanity are reckless or seek to abuse the power that AI could give them,” Mr Bengio said.
The report urged governments to strengthen international co-operation and invest in technical expertise, warning that many countries lack the capacity to independently evaluate the world's most advanced AI systems.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres echoed that call, urging governments not to delay establishing common rules for AI.
“The more AI advances without shared rules, the less say governments and people will have in the outcome,” Mr Guterres told reporters.
“My message to governments is simple: Do not wait.”
