SynopsisThe report, published by the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, which was established by the UN General Assembly last year as “the world’s first global scientific body on AI”, comes at a time when the US administration has imposed restrictions on the availability of advanced models such as Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos.ETtechCountries relying on foreign AI models, cloud infrastructure, and data pipelines may gain access to artificial intelligence (AI) but risk losing control over its standards, safeguards, and ability to adapt it to local needs, according to a new United Nations (UN) report.The report, published by the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, which was established by the UN General Assembly last year as “the world’s first global scientific body on AI”, comes at a time when the US administration has imposed restrictions on the availability of advanced models such as Anthropic's Fable 5 and Mythos.Although the US lifted the restrictions on Tuesday, the initial move had triggered calls in India to accelerate its sovereign AI ambitions. The UN panel, which includes IIT Madras professor Balaraman Ravindran among its members, examines the emerging opportunities and risks posed by AI.Underscoring that the AI divide is “not just about access, but about capacity to influence AI development”, the panel said countries increasingly need compute infrastructure — public or private — located within their borders to maintain autonomy, leverage, and national security.“As a subset of this, a growing market for sovereign AI infrastructure has emerged, with major economies investing in domestic compute,” the report said.It added that the capacity to respond to AI risks and impacts is unevenly distributed across countries. Most nations, including many advanced economies, lack the technical expertise needed to assess the most capable frontier AI models or participate meaningfully in their governance.“Compute infrastructure, evaluation expertise, and data (e.g., for different languages) are concentrated where AI is built, leaving most Member States dependent on systems they cannot build, inspect, audit, or fully adapt to local context,” the report noted.The panel warned that countries without their own infrastructure or testing capabilities risk missing opportunities to co-develop key technologies, shape governance frameworks, influence emerging global standards, and retain talent.To narrow these gaps, it called for greater investment in domestic AI infrastructure through both public funding and policies that attract private capital. It also recommended talent retention programmes, regional AI residencies, joint PhD programmes between universities, AI literacy in schools, and systematic reskilling of public servants. ...moreElevate your knowledge and leadership skills at a cost cheaper than your daily tea.Subscribe Now