France, April 5 -- The panel, bringing together around 40 experts from 37 countries, was approved by the UN General Assembly in February and held its first meeting in March. Members serve in their personal capacity for a three-year term.

It aims to help governments make sense of artificial intelligence (AI) as its reach quickly spreads across economies, politics and everyday life - and to close what the UN calls a growing "knowledge gap" around the technology.

Comparable with the IPCC climate change panel, it is designed to provide independent scientific advice and produce regular assessments of AI's risks and impacts, at a time when a handful of companies, mostly in the United States and China, dominate the field.

Among its ...