Antonio Guterres at AI Impact Summit: ‘Less hype, less fear,’ says IPCC-style UN panel aims for ‘human control’ of AI

India AI Impact Summit: UN chief Antonio Guterres on 20 February called for ‘less hype, less fear” over Artificial Intelligence (AI) as he said that a new expert panel aimed to make human control ‘a technical reality’, news agency AFP reported.

Guterres said the United Nations General Assembly had confirmed the 40 members proposed for the group, called the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence.

“Science-led governance is not a brake on progress” but can make it “safer, fairer, and more widely shared”, he said at the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.

‘Less hype, less fear. More facts and evidence’

“The message is simple: Less hype, less fear. More facts and evidence,” he said. The advisory body – aiming to be to AI what the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is to global warming – was created in August.

Its first report is expected to be published in time for the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance in July. It aims to help governments discuss AI as the fast-evolving technology sparks global concern over job losses, misinformation and online abuse, among other problems.

Guterres this month released a list of experts he had proposed for the UN’s AI panel. They included journalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa of the Philippines, and Canadian artificial intelligence pioneer Yoshua Bengio.

“AI innovation is moving at the speed of light — outpacing our collective ability to fully understand it — let alone govern it,” Guterres said Friday.

“We are barrelling into the unknown. Our goal is to make human control a technical reality — not a slogan,” he said.

“That requires meaningful human oversight in every high-stakes decision” and “requires clear accountability — so responsibility is never outsourced to an algorithm.”

India AI Impact Summit 2026

The India AI Impact Summit 2026 is being held in Delhi from 16 February to 20 February, marking the first global AI Summit to be hosted in the Global South. The summit has attracted government policymakers, industry AI experts, academicians, technology innovators, and civil society representatives from across the world to advance global discussions on artificial intelligence.

On Thursday, the summit saw a number of world leaders, CEOs and business leaders from across the globe come together to share their views on artificial intelligence and announce dozens of deals.

India expects more than $200 billion in investments over the next two years, and US tech titans unveiled new deals and infrastructure projects this week.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed the need to democratise artificial intelligence, while calling for a transparent approach to data sharing.

We are barrelling into the unknown. Our goal is to make human control a technical reality — not a slogan.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of The India AI Impact Summit 2026, PM Modi also presented India’s MANAV Vision for AI, which he said will serve as a crucial link in advancing humanity’s welfare. Guterres was also present at the opening ceremony