UN rights chief warns AI and autonomous drones threaten humanity

Volker Turk opened his second term as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights with a stark warning: artificial intelligence could become an existential threat to humanity unless governments and companies act before it is too late.

“I share the concerns of industry insiders that advanced AI could pose an existential risk to humanity,” Turk told the 47-member Human Rights Council in Geneva. He called for “an all-out effort to put cast-iron guarantees in place around the safety and security of AI, before it is too late.”

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I share the concerns of industry insiders that advanced AI could pose an existential risk to humanity.

His office said failures involving powerful AI systems could disrupt critical infrastructure, communications and democratic institutions. A spokesperson also pointed to what it called “dangerous agent-training behaviours” during July’s so-called Hugging Face incident, when a swarm of OpenAI agents hacked an open-source platform. The incident suggested that frontier AI capabilities may be advancing faster than safeguards, the spokesperson said.

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I am calling here, today, for an all-out effort to put cast-iron guarantees in place around the safety and security of AI, before it is too late.

Turk warned that a small number of men held “almost unlimited power over AI,” without naming them. He said countries that host AI systems and those involved in their supply chains should at least agree on clear red lines. The companies named in the address included Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI and Google.

The commissioner also called for accountability over about 23 deaths that he said had occurred in US immigration custody so far this year. He raised concerns about plans to equip agents with electric shock gloves. The US Department of Homeland Security has said it is committed to a “safe, secure and humane” detention environment, while its inspector general examines deaths in custody since October 2021.

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At a minimum, we need countries hosting AI and those involved in its supply chains to come together around agreed red lines.

Turk condemned Russia’s intensified attacks on Ukraine and expressed “horror” at reports that Russia had used fully autonomous drones, allegedly killing three people in August. “I join calls for the urgent prohibition of weapons that can take lives without human involvement,” he said, referring to talks in Geneva.

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I join calls for the urgent prohibition of weapons that can take lives without human involvement.