Leila Minkara | United Nations Information Center, Washington D.C
In February 2026, the United Nations General Assembly voted to formally appoint the members of the world's first independent international scientific body on artificial intelligence.
The Independent International Scientific Panel on AI was established by on August 26, 2025. The panel comprises 40 members drawn from academia, the private sector, civil society, government, and international organizations. Their three-year term runs from February 12, 2026 through February 11, 2029. The Panel will issue an annual report containing evidence-based scientific assessments of AI's opportunities, risks, and impacts.
The Panel is the direct product of a recommendation made by the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Advisory Body on AI to facilitate international cooperation. The Body spent nearly a year mapping the gaps in global conversations surrounding AI and concluded that international discussions required a scientifically grounded factual basis. The Scientific Panel is designed to fill that gap, asking what is known about AI, what its capabilities are, and what risks it poses.
? Secretary-General Antonio Guterres briefs press on the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence on February 4th, 2026. UN Photo/Manuel El¨ªas
The Panel's purpose is to generate independent scientific knowledge that discussion can draw from. The AI Panel is designed to be considerably agile, issuing annual reports to keep pace with a rapidly evolving technology.
Secretary-General Ant¨®nio Guterres, upon appointing the Panel's members, stated, "Today marks a foundational step toward global scientific understanding of AI. We now have a group of leading AI experts from across the globe who will provide independent and impartial assessments of AI's opportunities, risks and impacts."
The Panel's first annual report will be presented at the inaugural Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva in July 2026. The Global Dialogue was established alongside the Panel in the same August 2025 resolution and will receive the Panel's annual reports.
