AI innovation is advancing rapidly, prompting urgent calls for international cooperation and for scientific foundations to guide policy.
“We are barreling into the unknown. AI innovation is moving at the speed of light – outpacing our collective ability to understand it, let alone govern it fully,” said António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, while addressing the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.
“AI does not stop at borders, and no nation can fully grasp its implications on its own. If we want AI to serve humanity, policy cannot be built on guesswork.
“It cannot be built on hype or disinformation. We need facts we can trust and share across countries and across sectors. Less noise. More knowledge.”
For this reason, the UN is developing mechanisms that put science at the centre of international cooperation on AI, starting with a recently appointed body that brings together 40 leading experts in the field.
The Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence aims to help close “the AI knowledge gap” and assess the real impacts of these new technologies across economies and societies, so that countries can act with the same clarity regardless of their level of AI capacity.
Now the real work begins on a fast track to deliver a first report ahead of the Global Dialogue on AI Governance in July.
The Panel will provide a shared baseline for analysis, helping Member States move from philosophical debates to technical coordination and anchor choices in evidence, so policy is neither a blunt instrument that stifles progress nor a bystander to harm.
Guterres said that is how science strengthens decision-making.
“When we understand what systems can do and what they cannot, we can move from rough measures to smarter, risk-based guardrails. Guardrails that protect people, uphold human rights and preserve human agency.
“Guardrails that build confidence and give businesses clarity so innovation can move faster in the right direction, and Science-led governance is not a brake on progress.”
Safer Progress
“It is an accelerator for solutions. A way to make progress safer, fairer, and more widely shared; it helps us identify where AI can do the most good, the fastest, and anticipate impacts early from risks for children to labour markets to manipulation at scale.
Guterres noted countries can prepare, protect, and invest in people.
“Today, international cooperation is difficult. Trust is strained, and technological rivalry is growing.
“Without a common baseline, fragmentation wins – with different regions and different countries operating under incompatible policies and technical standards; A patchwork of rules will raise costs, weaken safety, and widen divides.
“Science is a universal language, and is guided by the Independent Panel and the Global Dialogue on AI Governance. We can align our technical baselines.”
“When we agree on how to test systems and measure risk, we create interoperability. Science informs, but humans decide, and our goal is to make human control a technical reality – not a slogan,” he said.
He urged people to understand how decisions are made, challenge them, and get answers.
He stated the message is simple: “Less hype. Less fear. More facts and evidence.”
“Guided by science, we can transform AI from a source of uncertainty into a reliable engine for the Sustainable Development Goals.”