The United Nations secretary-general has warned that artificial intelligence (AI) is being used to spread disinformation and hate, as he backed a proposal for the creation of an international watchdog to monitor the technology. Speaking at the launch of a new policy on disinformation on Monday, Antonio Guterres said that while technological advancement has been used for some good, the risks posed by AI threatens democracy and human rights. Guterres said he backs a proposal by some artificial intelligence executives for the creation of a watchdog body similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Generative AI technology – which can perform natural language processing tasks such as answering questions, summarising text and even generating lines of code – has captivated the public since ChatGPT launched six months ago. AI has also become a focus of concern over its ability to create misinformation and deep fakes, which are AI-generated images and videos that mimic people.