When U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres introduced the 40 members of the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, I had a sense of déjà vu. As the U.N. touted members “from all five of the U.N.’s regions” and “from various different backgrounds,” I was reminded of my own experience with the U.N.’s vision of diversity. On…
A more balanced distribution of research capacity would make the global AI ecosystem more resilient, diversify its ideas, and give legitimacy to the governance frameworks that follow. AI is often described as the defining technology of our time, yet the way its knowledge base is created remains profoundly uneven. While governments spend efforts debating strategies…
The alarm bells of an impending AI bubble rang loudly at the recent Cerebral Valley conference, unsettling tech enthusiasts, investors, and even founders. Yet miles away at United Nations Headquarters, a different urgency filled the corridors. Officials were reviewing applications for the newly established Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence, 40 experts tasked not…
On October 24, 1791, a man named Douwe Posthuma passed out drunk in a tavern in Amsterdam. His behavior, obviously, wasn’t welcomed back home, and the brawl between father and son ended up in the records of street conflicts. A relatively unremarkable family feud seemed to have been forgotten in history until it emerged more…
The United Nations takes on the challenge of AI governance with scientific panel modeled after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change For all its lofty ideals, the United Nations is not known for its lightning speed. Yet ambassadors Héctor Gómez Hernández and Maritza Chan Valverde, permanent representatives of Spain and Costa Rica, are proud to…
For decades, artificial intelligence (AI) has been quietly revolutionizing healthcare, long before it became the buzzword it is today. While headlines celebrate AI’s latest feats—whether it’s diagnosing diseases with uncanny accuracy, assisting in robotic surgeries, or accelerating drug discovery—few realize that AI’s roots in medicine stretch back more than half a century. This is the…
Refik Anadol, the visionary Turkish artist who captivated millions with his ground-breaking MoMA installation Unsupervised, is now shaping the future of art and technology with the opening of the world’s first AI art museum, Dataland, in Los Angeles in 2025. Recently recognized at the prestigious 2025 TIME100 Impact Awards, Anadol has spent nearly two decades…
“AI is more powerful than fire or electricity.” Those were the exact words of Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Indeed AI is rapidly changing the “expected future”, what we thought was “possible”. It is revolutionizing everything from healthcare, science, communications to national security at record speed. But with great power comes great responsibility. There are significant…
