New York, 21 September 2026 – The Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, established by the UN General Assembly, released its first thematic brief, an assessment of the breach of Hugging Face's systems by AI agents under evaluation at OpenAI this summer. The Panel, made up of 40 independent experts from all regions, is publishing it as an advance unedited version as world leaders gather in New York for the Assembly's High-Level Week.
"Researchers have long warned that three conditions could lead to loss of control: a misaligned goal, the capability to pursue it, and an environment that allows it. This summer, all three came together in a real system, not a laboratory. Since this is not an isolated observation of misaligned goals, this raises serious questions about the way AI agents are currently trained." - Yoshua Bengio, Co-Chair of the Panel and Turing Award laureate
The Panel finds that stopping this incident is no assurance that humans can reliably keep AI agents under control today, particularly as they become more capable, harder to monitor and better at finding loopholes or hiding their activity. The default interpretation and immediate lesson is that basic cybersecurity practices were overlooked, and safeguards are not advancing at the pace of capabilities. The more insidious and grave concern is that current training methods can lead agents to adopt goals of their own, knowingly violate safety instructions, and conceal their actions. This is not only a question of speed. It leaves open whether safeguards designed today will work once agents can understand them and plan around them. In simple terms, the traditional model of safeguarding is unravelling.
The brief, AI Agents, Misalignment and the Risk of Losing Human Control: Evidence from the OpenAI Hugging Face Incident, sets those findings against wider research on agentic misalignment and AI control. The brief defines loss of control as a situation in which humans cannot reliably direct, constrain or stop an autonomous AI system. It separates what the 2026 incident shows from possible future trajectories, examining how the same mechanisms could lead to more serious risks in more capable AI agents. It does not predict severe loss of control, nor does it treat that uncertainty as evidence that these systems will stay controllable.
The Panel also finds that the governance challenge is moving from AI models to AI agents. A local failure could spread across organisational and national boundaries, and the brief suggests that AI safety may be becoming a matter of collective security as well as corporate governance.
The brief also reviews practical approaches already in use in other high-risk sectors.
"We are not starting from zero. Aviation, medicine and cybersecurity learned to manage high-risk systems through incident reporting, independent scrutiny, and layered safeguards. But those practices may not be enough as AI agents become more capable, autonomous and difficult to monitor. We need to adapt existing safeguards and develop new ones to provide system-level assurance, covering both the AI itself and the system around it, and ensure these protections remain effective as agents’ capabilities grow. We need to adapt existing safeguards and develop new ones to provide system-level assurance, covering both the AI itself and the system around it." -- Qinghua Lu, Member of the Panel and Expert in AI Engineering, AI Safety and Responsible AI
About the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence
The Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence was established by UN General Assembly resolution A/RES/79/325 of 26 August 2025, building on the Global Digital Compact. Its 40 members were appointed by the General Assembly and serve in their personal capacity. The Panel produces annual policy-relevant but non-prescriptive reports on the opportunities, risks and impacts of AI in the non-military domain, alongside thematic briefs on emerging issues, to inform the Global Dialogue on Artificial Intelligence Governance. Its first Co Chairs are Yoshua Bengio (Canada) and Maria Ressa (Philippines).
The Panel Secretariat is coordinated by Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies Amandeep Gill and the UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies and includes members from ITU and UNESCO while also drawing on other system-wide capacities. Its role is enabling, including logistical, administrative, and other substantive support as requested by the Panel. The Secretariat does not direct the Panel's scientific work, and the Panel's findings are not subject to UN review or approval.
An advance unedited version is available here.
Select panel members are available for interviews during High-Level Week.
Media contacts
UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies (ODET)
Karoline Hassfurter, karoline.hassfurter@un.org;
Anamika Madhuraj, anamika.madhuraj@un.org;
aiscientificpanel@un.org