Advances in artificial intelligence could worsen global inequality, and the window for redress through global governance is rapidly closing, according to a new United Nations report.
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The findings come from a preliminary report released this week by the United Nations’ independent international scientific panel on artificial intelligence, which will be composed of 40 experts from around the world and will be established by the General Assembly in 2025.
“The more AI advances without shared rules, the less say governments and citizens have over its outcomes,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said at a press conference on Wednesday.
“Our message to governments is simple: There’s no need to wait…the science is here. We can no longer say we don’t know what we’re doing.”
What did the report find?
The report states that the industry is advancing at extraordinary speed, and generative AI can now create software, analyze huge datasets, produce lifelike images and videos, and support scientific discovery.
He said agent AI will further evolve, allowing AI agents to complete complex tasks with minimal involvement.
According to the panel, the difficulty of the tasks these systems can handle roughly doubles every few months. As AI becomes more autonomous, it could become increasingly difficult to monitor and control without stronger safeguards, the commission warned.
The report warned of increasing risks, with AI being used to generate sexually abusive content and explicit deepfakes, with women and children disproportionately targeted.
The commission also notes that AI is making disinformation more persuasive and difficult to detect, undermining public trust and democratic debate.
Cybersecurity is also at risk, with criminals using AI for fraud, social engineering, and harmful thinking in vulnerable users, contributing to mental health crises such as suicide.
The report also identified data centers that power AI as a growing source of greenhouse gas emissions.
AI benefits
However, the report was not all pessimistic. Some of the benefits the company cited include that its AI models mapped the structures of more than 200 million proteins, speeding up drug discovery, vaccine research, and antibiotic resistance research.
He also said the technology is helping to warn before food insecurity becomes a full-blown crisis and expand access to education, mental health supports and tools for people with disabilities.
uneven playing field
AI is also not evenly distributed around the world. The report estimates that the United States controls about three-quarters of the computing power of the world’s leading AI supercomputers, with China accounting for about 15%.
This means that around 90% of that capacity is between the two countries, and the most advanced AI models are built by companies based in the same two countries.
However, developing countries lack the talent, infrastructure, and funding to build or audit the AI systems they use.
The commission warned that without efforts to close this gap, AI risks increasing global inequality.
regulatory struggle
The report says there is an “evidence dilemma” when it comes to introducing AI regulations, where lawmakers need hard data before they can create effective rules, but AI often evolves beyond that data before it can be compiled.
More than 40 AI governance frameworks currently exist around the world, but the panel describes them as fragmented, inconsistent, and largely untested to ensure they work in practice.
Much of the actual safety testing is still performed by the same companies that developed the technology, raising questions about independence.
Alongside investment, the commission calls for stronger third-party evaluations and stronger international coordination and common standards to help countries build the expertise and infrastructure needed to manage AI on their own terms.
The panel’s findings will feed into the United Nations Global Dialogue on AI Governance, scheduled to open in Geneva on July 6, 2026, where member states will discuss a collaborative international approach to technology management.
