UN Acknowledges ‘Conflicts’ of Interest After Byline Times Exposes AI Panel’s Ties to OpenAI and Anthropic Funders

The United Nation’s “Independent” AI Panel warning governments about the dangers of advanced artificial intelligence has financial and personnel ties to OpenAI and Anthropic – the frontier AI companies building the technology the panel was created to assess – a Byline Times investigation has established.

In response to this publication’s enquiries, the UN has disclosed that measures including recusal from specific discussions were agreed after an assessment of the conflicts of interest.

The UN AI panel’s latest briefing largely echoes the warnings in recent weeks from frontier AI firms, warning that the “safeguards designed today” may fail “once agents can understand them and plan around them. In simple terms, the traditional model of safeguarding is unravelling.” 

However, a Byline Times investigation has revealed that the panel has extensive ties to the very companies it is assessing. Its co-chair, Yoshua Bengio, advised OpenAI at its launch and now leads LawZero, an AI organisation supported by funders of OpenAI and Anthropic. 

Kevin Kohler, one of the writers of the panel’s July preliminary report, simultaneously worked full-time for a think tank funded by the same philanthropic network that built both frontier AI giants – an affiliation omitted from the report’s credits.

“Each declaration was assessed for possible or actual conflicts, and mitigation measures, including recusal from specific discussions, were agreed,” states an FAQ published on the panel’s website, which was updated in response to Byline Times’ inquiries.

The answer does not identify the interests concerned, or name the members who agreed to stand aside from particular discussions.

“We have published answers to many of the questions you raised on the Panel’s website,” a spokesperson for the UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies, told Byline Times.

These potential conflicts of interest reach into the panel’s latest assessment, published on 21 September. Examining an incident involving OpenAI and Hugging Face, the brief warns about the risk of losing human control over AI. It draws on Bengio’s own work and discusses research from his organisation, LawZero.

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The 40-member Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence was appointed by the UN General Assembly in February to assess AI’s opportunities, risks and impacts. Bengio co-chairs it alongside Nobel Peace Prize-winning journalist Maria Ressa. Its findings are intended to inform how governments worldwide govern the technology.

The potential conflicts also extend to the panel’s creation. The Simon Institute for Longterm Governance, which employed Kevin Kohler during his report drafting assignment, helped shape the negotiations over the panel’s design.

Open Philanthropy, which funded OpenAI and supports Yoshua Bengio’s LawZero through its successor Coefficient Giving, also financed the expansion of effective altruism and longtermism, which have intellectual roots in eugenics – the pursuit of supposedly superior human populations through selective reproduction. The same philanthropic network helped finance AI developers and organisations warning of their technology’s dangers, and now supports organisations employing people responsible for the UN’s independent assessments.

Neither the UN AI panel’s September brief nor its July preliminary report publishes individual declarations of interest or records of members standing aside from decisions because of a conflict. 

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The Undisclosed Effective Altruism Conflict

One of the writers of the UN AI panel’s July report was simultaneously employed full-time by a think tank that had helped shape the panel itself.

Kevin Kohler’s CV records a UN University consultancy in scientific editing and drafting from April to July 2026. Yet throughout those months, he was also a senior technology policy specialist at the Simon Institute for Longterm Governance. While the July report credits his drafting work, it identifies his affiliation only as UN University.

The UN’s new FAQ places responsibility for selecting and supervising reports drafters and editors with the panel itself, which selects them through a merit-based process from candidates nominated and approved by members. UN University administered their contracts.

That response does not address the omission of Kohler’s concurrent Simon Institute employment from the report’s credits.

The Simon Institute has direct roots in effective altruism. Its co-founder and chief executive, Max Stauffer, previously co-founded Effective Altruism Geneva and directed its research.

Kohler’s work on the panel began before his drafting assignment. His CV says he supported the General Assembly negotiations that established the panel and its accompanying Global Dialogue on AI Governance, a forum for governments to discuss AI policy. The Simon Institute’s annual report also confirms its involvement in the panel’s design through diplomatic workshops, consultations and recommendations, crediting Kohler.

The institute also worked with Mila, the Canadian AI institute founded by the panel’s eventual co-chair, Yoshua Bengio. Its annual report records a joint event in July 2025 with the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

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The Money Behind the AI Firms and Their Assessors

Both Kohler’s employer and Bengio’s organisation receive support from an interlocking philanthropic network that also helped finance OpenAI.

At its centre are Good Ventures, established by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and Cari Tuna, and its philanthropic adviser Coefficient Giving, formerly Open Philanthropy. The latter grew out of a partnership between Good Ventures and the charity evaluator GiveWell.

The Simon Institute’s accounts record approximately $1.6 million from Good Ventures in 2024 and $92,000 fr