The UN Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence has released its first preliminary report on AI risks and opportunities

The UN Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence has released its first preliminary report on AI opportunities, risks and impacts. The report was officially launched in New York on 1 July 2026.

The panel is composed of 40 scientists and experts from all UN regions. Its members serve in their personal capacity and are independent of governments, companies and institutions.

The preliminary report is intended to give governments a shared evidence base for AI policy discussions. It will be presented at the inaugural UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance, to be held in Geneva on 6 and 7 July.

The panel says governments are making major decisions about AI while the technology is changing quickly and evidence remains uncertain or contested. It identifies a central problem for policymakers: they need scientific evidence to govern AI effectively, but if they wait until the evidence is fully clear, it may be too late to act.

The report examines AI across seven areas. These include AI science and future trajectories, applications in science, health, education and agriculture, economic implications, security and environmental impacts, human rights, information and democracy, culture and child safety, and governance and reliability.

The panel warns that current safeguards are not keeping pace with the growth of AI capabilities. It says AI could bring major benefits, but those benefits will not be distributed automatically. They are more likely to reach communities and countries that already have strong institutions, skills, data and infrastructure.

The report also raises concerns about inequality. It says AI can deepen existing divides where communities lack the resources to shape or benefit from the technology. In such cases, people may become dependent on systems developed elsewhere and not designed around their needs.

The panel’s co-chairs are Yoshua Bengio of Canada and Maria Ressa of the Philippines. Bengio warned that AI capabilities are moving faster than scientific understanding and government adaptation. Ressa said the technology is transformative, but that current development trajectories risk preventing humanity from fully realising its benefits.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said governments need independent science to understand and govern AI. Amandeep Singh Gill, UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies, said the report puts the uneven distribution of AI benefits and risks into a shared scientific framework.

The panel was created by the UN General Assembly under resolution A/RES/79/325, adopted in August 2025. Its mandate is to assess the science of AI, not to prescribe policy.

The preliminary report is the panel’s first output. It will be followed by regular assessments and thematic briefs as AI develops. The panel’s first full annual report is expected to inform the second Global Dialogue on AI Governance in New York in May 2027.