The panel, created at the recommendation of UN Secretary\u2011General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres and formally appointed by the General Assembly in February, brings together 40 leading experts from academia, government, civil society, the private sector and the technical community. Its mandate is to examine how AI is reshaping economies, governance and daily life, while ensuring that innovation remains aligned with human rights and ethical principles.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not just focusing on AI as a mathematical or algorithmic field,\u201d said panel member Menna El\u2011Assady, an Assistant Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. \u201cWe are making sure that humans remain central to decision\u2011making.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
El\u2011Assady, an Egyptian national, is one of the panel\u2019s founding members. Her research focuses on \u201caugmented intelligence\u201d, an approach that uses AI to enhance human capabilities rather than replace them. She argues that the most effective systems are those where humans and AI evolve together, a process known as the co\u2011adaptation loop.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are trying to understand when humans and their expertise are essential, and when processes can be safely automated,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The panel\u2019s work spans key sectors including healthcare, labour markets, public services and governance. Members are also examining how AI systems can better reflect global diversity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need public digital infrastructure so that access to AI development is not limited to a few countries,\u201d El\u2011Assady said. \u201cAnd we must integrate different cultures and languages into models.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The panel was established amid growing concern about the risks of unregulated AI. Guterres has warned that \u201chumanity\u2019s fate cannot be left to an algorithm\u201d, while UN human rights chief Volker T\u00fcrk has cautioned against deploying AI systems without ethical grounding.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Trust and transparency are central themes for the panel. El\u2011Assady points to AI watermarking as one possible tool to distinguish between human\u2011created and AI\u2011generated content.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The panel\u2019s first report is expected to be released at the Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva on July 6-7, marking a significant step toward global, human\u2011centred oversight of AI.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–UN\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":31576,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[44,26],"class_list":["post-31575","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"The United Nations\u2019 (UN) Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence (AI) is preparing for its first in\u2011person summit, as the world\u2019s first global scientific body dedicated to assessing the societal impacts of AI begins work on a landmark study.","published_date":"","news_description":"The United Nations\u2019 (UN) Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence (AI) is preparing for its first in\u2011person summit, as the world\u2019s first global scientific body dedicated to assessing the societal impacts of AI begins work on a landmark study.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31577,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31575\/revisions\/31577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=31575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}