{"slug": "un-calls-for-ai-to-be-reined-in-as-china-and-trump-downplay-threat", "title": "UN calls for AI to be reined in as China and Trump downplay threat", "summary": "UN human rights chief Volker Türk called on states and AI companies to urgently govern advanced frontier AI models, warning in a letter that the world is \"on the cusp of irreversible change\" and that the current race toward more powerful AI poses greater existential risks. The appeal drew pushback as China's foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun rejected \"threat narratives\" over AI governance, and US President Donald Trump said the only guardrail AI needs is a \"STRONG AND SMART\" president, calling criticism of AI a \"SICK conspiracy.\" The dispute follows warnings from two Anthropic researchers and a call by Anthropic chief Dario Amodei for a three-step framework to slow AI capability development, endorsed by xAI's Elon Musk and OpenAI chief Sam Altman, with the issues set to feature in bilateral talks during Xi Jinping's visit to the US later this month.", "body_md": "# UN calls for AI to be reined in as China and Trump downplay threat\n\nUS president Donald Trump dismisses need for guardrails as 'sick conspiracy' against AI\n\n- Bookmark\n\nThe UN has asked [artificial intelligence](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/artificial-intelligence) companies to rein in development of the technology, as both [China](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/china) and the US played down the growing concerns of industry leaders.\n\nIn a letter sent to countries and AI developers, UN human rights chief Volker Türk cautioned that the world was “on the cusp of irreversible change, affecting not just us but generations of humanity to come”.\n\n\"The current race towards ever more powerful AI is a step change towards greater existential risks to every aspect of our lives,\" he wrote.\n\n“I call on states and companies to mobilise urgently through multilateral fora to chart a path for action to govern advanced, frontier AI models, grounded in international human rights law.”\n\nConcerns about the [potential harms of AI grew last week](https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/ai-kill-threat-regulation-openai-anthropic-b3049883.html) after two researchers with [Anthropic](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/anthropic) issued warnings that the rapidly progressing technology could lead to the extinction of the human race in the not-too-distant future.\n\nThe US and China are at the front of the race to develop and deploy frontier AI, but Washington and Beijing are at odds over each other’s AI policies and industry practices.\n\nThese issues are slated to feature prominently in bilateral talks later this month during president Xi Jinping's visit to the US.\n\nChina on Monday slammed the “threat narratives\" over AI governance and warned against \"engaging in confrontation and malicious competition\".\n\nForeign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a briefing that \"narratives of threat, confrontation, and malicious competition serve only to disrupt the process of global AI governance and are not in anyone's interest\".\n\n\"All parties should work together to advance AI in a manner that is open, inclusive, beneficial to all, and oriented toward the good,\" he said.\n\n[Donald Trump](https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/donald-trump), who maintains that his priority is making sure the US develops the tech faster than China, also downplayed the alarm sounded by the researchers.\n\n\"The only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!\" he said in a post on Truth Social.\n\nHe added that China would benefit from the doubt being cast on AI development. \"We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies! There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China.\"\n\nOver the weekend, Anthropic chief Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in AI development. He outlined a three-step framework intended to pace development and create more time to manage its risks.\n\n“We must slow the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models,” he wrote in a long essay.\n\nThe proposal was immediately endorsed by other executives at major AI companies, including Elon Musk, who runs xAI, and OpenAI chief Sam Altman.\n\nMr Trump said the tools intended to keep AI safe had already been used on Mr Amodei.\n\n\"The Trump Administration has stopped AI 'people' from doing bad, or potentially bad, 'things,' like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a 'perfect little angel' - and we will continue to do so,\" he said.\n\nIn spite of the race to develop increasingly powerful AI systems, regulatory frameworks and public statements from Beijing underscore how Chinese authorities regard the possibility of advanced AI escaping effective human oversight as serious enough to plan for.\n\nChina's state security minister Chen Yixin wrote on Sunday that advanced US models could pose serious risks to his country’s critical information infrastructure.\n\nChinese AI developers have promoted open-weight models partly on the grounds that cybersecurity teams can inspect, modify and deploy them for defensive work.\n\nAt the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai in July, Mr Xi said authorities should pay close attention to both intrinsic and derivative risks arising from AI.\n\nHe said AI should \"always remain under human control\".\n\nThe UN Security Council will reportedly hold a meeting next week to address the threat from AI.\n\n## Join our commenting forum\n\nJoin thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies\n\n[Comments](#comments-area)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/un-calls-for-ai-to-be-reined-in-as-china-and-trump-downplay-threat", "canonical_source": "https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/china/ai-un-trump-china-openai-anthropic-gemini-b3050206.html", "published_at": "2026-09-15 06:29:05+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-15 07:02:47.275798+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "ai-safety", "artificial-intelligence", "ai-ethics"], "entities": ["United Nations", "Volker Türk", "Donald Trump", "China", "Guo Jiakun", "Anthropic", "Dario Amodei", "Sam Altman"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/un-calls-for-ai-to-be-reined-in-as-china-and-trump-downplay-threat", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/un-calls-for-ai-to-be-reined-in-as-china-and-trump-downplay-threat.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/un-calls-for-ai-to-be-reined-in-as-china-and-trump-downplay-threat.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/un-calls-for-ai-to-be-reined-in-as-china-and-trump-downplay-threat.jsonld"}}