King Charles warns AI leaders of existential danger if technology reaches wrong hands

King Charles has warned AI executives of the “existential dangers” posed if the technology falls into the wrong hands.

He made the comments at a summit he convened at Dumfries House in Scotland to discuss how AI can benefit society. The meeting included the UK's AI Minister Kanishka Narayan, the Pope's advisor, and representatives from Nvidia, OpenAI and Anthropic.

“Those who have created these technologies are now increasingly warning that AI risks developing darker capacities - perhaps even to take life,” the King told the group. He said there was an “urgency” to consider the dangers of the technology being used in potentially catastrophic ways.

Charles said the task was not only to advance technology, but to ensure it remained in the service of humanity, community and the natural world. The summit is considering whether a “shared set of principles” can guide the future application of AI.

The discussion comes amid warnings from people in the industry about the capabilities of advanced, or “frontier”, AI models and the regulation needed to control them. Critics argue that attention to hypothetical future risks can distract from immediate concerns, including AI's environmental impact, while others say AI companies cannot be trusted to regulate themselves.