UN High commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk delivers a speech during the 63rd session of United Nations Human Rights Council, in Geneva, on September 7, 2026.
The United Nations rights chief Volker Turk warned Monday that artificial intelligence could pose an “existential threat to humanity,” demanding immediate action to reduce the risks.
Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council, Turk warned that humans currently faced “unfamiliar, even unprecedented” threats to their rights.
“The need for AI governance is widely acknowledged, but where is the action?” he asked, warning that “delay only benefits the massive tech companies, their owners and enablers.”
Turk decried that “a handful of men have almost unlimited power over AI, which we are repeatedly told has unimaginable computing capacity.
