What did Antonio Guterres say the UN AI panel is meant to achieve?

Guterres said the goal is to make human control a technical reality, not just a slogan. He said that requires clear accountability so responsibility is never outsourced to an algorithm.

Why did Guterres say governments need the AI panel?

He said AI is moving faster than governments can fully understand or govern it. He warned of risks including job losses, misinformation and online abuse, and said smarter, risk-based guardrails are needed.

UN panel aims for 'human control' of AI: Guterres

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Summary

UN chief Antonio Guterres said in New Delhi that a new expert panel on artificial intelligence should make human control a technical reality. He urged less hype and less fear, and said science-led governance can make AI safer, fairer and more widely shared. The panel, confirmed by the UN General Assembly, has 40 members and is expected to issue its first report by July.

Key Facts

The panel is called the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence and was created in August.
The United Nations General Assembly confirmed 40 members for the group.
Its first report is expected in time for the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance in July.
Guterres said the panel is meant to help governments regulate AI amid concerns over job losses, misinformation and online abuse.
He said the experts he proposed this month include Maria Ressa and Yoshua Bengio.

By AFP

Published Feb 20, 2026 3:12 pm KST

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech during the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, Feb. 19. AFP-Yonhap

NEW DELHI — UN chief Antonio Guterres called Friday for "less hype, less fear" over artificial intelligence as he said that a new expert panel aimed to "make human control a technical reality".

Guterres said the United Nations General Assembly had confirmed 40 members for the group, called the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence.

"Science-led governance is not a brake on progress" but can make it "safer, fairer, and more widely shared", he told the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.

"The message is simple: Less hype, less fear. More facts and evidence."

The advisory body — aiming to be to AI what the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is to global warming — was created in August.

Its first report is expected to be published in time for the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance in July.

The panel aims to help governments regulate AI as the fast-evolving technology sparks global concern over job losses, misinformation and online abuse among other problems.

"AI innovation is moving at the speed of light — outpacing our collective ability to fully understand it — let alone govern it," Guterres said.

"We are barrelling into the unknown."

"When we understand what systems can do — and what they cannot — we can move from rough measures to smarter, risk-based guardrails," he said.

Guterres this month gave a list of experts he had proposed to serve on the UN's AI panel.

They included journalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa of the Philippines, and Canadian artificial intelligence pioneer Yoshua Bengio.

"Our goal is to make human control a technical reality — not a slogan," he said.

That "requires clear accountability — so responsibility is never outsourced to an algorithm".

Later on Friday dozens of world leaders and ministers are expected to deliver a statement outlining how the world should handle artificial intelligence, wrapping up the five-day summit focused on the technology.

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