Guterres calls for ban on ‘killer robots’ as first global AI governance dialogue open
UNITED NATIONS, New York: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday that an uncontrolled “experiment” is being run on the world’s societies through the rapid deployment of artificial intelligence “without a plan, and without consent,” as he unveiled a new AI Child Safety Pledge and renewed calls for an international ban on lethal autonomous weapons at the opening of the first Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva.
Addressing delegates from all 193 UN member states, Guterres said AI was advancing at “runaway speed,” reshaping economies, labor markets, elections and global security faster than governments — or even its own developers — could manage. “That is not sustainable. And it is not acceptable,” he said.
The secretary-general’s remarks accompanied the release of the first report by the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence, a body of 40 experts drawn from every region who serve in their personal capacity.
Guterres said the panel’s findings carried three warnings: the speed of AI development; the concentration of computing power and talent in a small number of companies and countries; and the erosion of shared truth as synthetic content becomes indistinguishable from reality.
