MAJOR RISKS

Another risk flagged by Guterres was the concentration of power in a handful of AI companies and in a handful of countries.

Most countries "have had no say in decisions that will shape their futures", he warned.

In the face of such challenges, he said countries faced a stark choice, "between governing by design and drifting by default".

The UN chief highlighted the potential of AI technologies for everything from accelerating development, to improving healthcare and providing broader access to education.

But he insisted developments needed to be guided by several key priorities, including safety and respect for human rights, to ensure that people everywhere reap the benefits.

He called for "common methods to evaluate and verify risks" and jointly-agreed standards, particularly for ensuring the safety of children accessing AI systems.

"We do not let medicine reach a child until it is proven safe. We test every toy," Guterres pointed out.

"Yet AI has reached our children - their learning, their friendships, their most private questions - before anyone asked what it would do to them."

Guterres called for an AI Child Safety Pledge, requiring companies to prove that any system accessible to children is safe and has zero tolerance for sexual abuse.

The systems must also connect any child showing signs of distress to real human support, he said.

"No child should be a guinea pig for unregulated AI," he insisted.