UN General Assembly Approves AI Panel

The U.N. General Assembly has overwhelmingly approved the establishment of a 40-member global scientific panel to assess the impacts and risks of artificial intelligence. The vote was 117-2, with the United States and Paraguay voting 'no', and Tunisia and Ukraine abstaining. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, who initiated the panel, described it as a crucial step for global scientific understanding of AI. The United States, through U.S. Mission counselor Lauren Lovelace, strongly objected, calling it an overreach of the U.N.'s mandate and expressing concerns about authoritarian regimes influencing AI governance. The Trump administration aims to support like-minded nations in AI development. The panel members were selected after an independent review by the International===International Telecommunication Union, the U.N. Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies, and International===UNESCO. Notable members include Maria Ressa, Vipin Kumar, Martha Palmer, Song Haitao, Wang Jian, and Andrei Neznamov.