A new United Nations report has warned that the rapid development of artificial intelligence could widen global inequality, calling for a shared international framework to guide the responsible development of the technology as adoption and investment continue to accelerate unevenly across countries.

“Access to AI tools alone does not produce equal benefit,” the report states. “Countries that rely on foreign models, cloud infrastructure and data pipelines may gain access to AI while losing practical control over its standards, safeguards and local fit.”

The report, produced by an independent international scientific panel established by the United Nations General Assembly last year as the first global scientific body on artificial intelligence, examines both the opportunities and risks posed by the technology. It highlights AI’s potential to transform sectors such as agriculture and education, while warning that it could also be exploited for fraud, election interference and other harmful activities.

Serving as a practical guide for UN member states, the preliminary report outlines measures to maximize AI-driven economic growth while reducing associated risks.

Recommended actions include investing in local AI infrastructure such as data centres, strengthening AI education and workforce skills, supporting AI developers, establishing AI safety institutes, developing strategies to counter disinformation and continuously monitoring AI systems after deployment in real-world conditions.

The report also notes that although more than one billion people now use AI every week, adoption remains highly uneven.

It warns that countries across the Global South continue to lag behind those in the Global North in both access to AI technologies and the ways they are used.

The report identifies the United States and China as the dominant players in developing advanced artificial intelligence models and investing in the computing infrastructure needed to power them, including processors, memory, networking and data storage.

“The concentration of AI capabilities in a small number of firms and countries could enable authoritarian capture and undermine democratic accountability,” the report states.

To help close the AI gap, the panel urges countries that are behind in AI development to make substantial investments in computing capacity and data infrastructure. It says attracting such investment will require reliable electricity supplies and the construction of data centres, while acknowledging the environmental trade-offs, including high energy and water consumption and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

The authors also warn that regulating and assessing the safety of increasingly powerful AI models remains a growing challenge, underscoring the need for stronger oversight and continuous evaluation as the technology evolves.

“Most countries, including many advanced economies, lack the technical expertise to assess the most capable ‘frontier’ models or to participate meaningfully in their governance,” they write.

The report was prepared by a panel of 40 independent scientific experts from around the world, who describe it as the first assessment of its kind. The panel argues that the United Nations is the leading global forum for addressing cross-border risks posed by artificial intelligence, emphasizing that its recommendations are grounded in scientific evidence rather than political considerations.