King Charles warns of 'existential danger' of AI falling into wrong hands

King Charles has warned AI executives of the "existential dangers" posed by the technology falling into the wrong hands.

He made the comments at a summit he had convened at Dumfries House in Ayrshire to discuss how the tech can be used to benefit society.

Those gathered at the meeting also included Kanishka Narayan, the UK's AI Minister, the Pope's advisor, and participants from AI giants such as Nvidia, OpenAI and Anthropic.

It comes amid a series of recent warnings from people inside the industry about the rapidly evolving capabilities of advanced or "frontier" AI models and the regulation needed to keep them in check.

"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 executives.

He said there seemed to be an "urgency" in "adequately considering the existential dangers of such technologies falling into the wrong hands, and being used in potentially catastrophic ways".

"The task before you is not merely to advance technology, but to ensure that it remains firmly in the service of humanity, community and the natural world," he told the group.

The summit has been called to consider whether a "shared set of principles" can be developed to "help guide the future application" of AI.