OpenAI, Anthropic and Google explore AI standards as US, UN and China debate safety and governance

The world’s biggest AI companies are working on creating a standards body, ChatGPT-maker OpenAI said on Tuesday, as fears rise about the dangers of AI and pressure is on to create a safer version of the technology. OpenAI said it was working with Anthropic and Google on an idea that originated from a proposal by Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis for a self-regulatory body modelled after the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that oversees US brokers and investment firms. In July, Hassabis called for the United States to create an organisation that would test the most powerful AI systems before they are released to the public. “Funding would need to be substantial and likely mostly come from industry, in order to attract world-class technical talent and provide the necessary compute resources for large-scale testing,” Hassabis wrote. There is no consensus on how to move forward, though. The chief of Canadian AI company Cohere recently accused the dominant American AI labs of forming a “cartel” under the guise of safety. “AI needs guardrails. That is not the dispute and never has been. The dispute is over who writes them, who gets to participate and whose interests the rules are protecting,” Cohere co-founder and CEO Aiden Gomez wrote in a blog post on Sunday. Concerns about AI safety have escalated in recent weeks, including warnings from two workers who resigned from major AI developers amid concerns about the industry’s risks. Last week, Jacob Coxon left Anthropic and warned that AI companies were “gambling with our lives.” He also previously worked at OpenAI. On Monday, former Google DeepMind researcher Bilal Chughtai echoed the concerns raised by Coxon and others. “I earnestly believe that AI has the potential to kill us all, and that we might be running out of time to avoid this outcome,” Chughtai wrote on social media. On Saturday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in the pace of AI development, a sentiment that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Hassabis all supported. US President Donald Trump has however, dismissed warnings about the risks of AI as “hoaxes.” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has also pushed back. “The confluence of these words and then the prediction is alarming and troubling and it shouldn’t be done. It’s irresponsible,” Huang said Monday at a conference in Los Angeles where Trump called him while he was on stage. The dire outlook that AI could destroy humanity “is not grounded on science,” Huang said.

Beijing, Sep 15: China on Tuesday called for stronger "global governance" of artificial intelligence, saying all countries should work together to develop the technology for the benefit of humanity and prevent it from "getting out of control", amid stark warnings from leading AI researchers and industry figures about its potential risks.China calls for AI cooperation"We noted recent remarks by some in the US AI industry,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said, responding to questions about concerns raised by AI experts over the dangers posed by the rapidly developing technology."As AI develops at an incredible speed, it's all the more important to stay committed to developing AI for the positive, for good, and for the benefits of the people, to calibrate regulation and governance on AI, and to promptly strengthen safeguards to prevent it from getting out of control," he said.MFA Spokesperson’s response to claims that “Chinese AI advantage would pose U.S. national security risks”:AI is a consequential technology for the future of humanity. The world needs open & inclusive AI for good and for all. Fear-mongering, confrontation and vicious competition… pic.twitter.com/SqlnqbTNrx— CHINA MFA Spokesperson 中国外交部发言人 (@MFA_China) September 14, 2026 AI is the collective wisdom and precious asset shared by all humanity, Guo said in a statement posted on the foreign ministry's website, stressing that its development and governance require international cooperation."AI development and governance require the practice of true multilateralism, with all countries working together to build a global governance framework on broad-based consensus,” he said.“No single country or enterprise can develop effective solutions on its own,” the spokesperson said, adding that China backs the United Nations playing the main role in global AI governance."China stands ready to join hands with all countries to build a just and equitable system for global AI governance, and develop AI for good and for all," he said.Warnings over AI risks growGuo's comments came amid heightened debate in the US over the pace of AI development and the potential threat posed by its increasingly powerful systems.Several top AI researchers and industry figures have warned that rapid and largely unhindered development of the technology could pose unprecedented risks to humanity.Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who recently left the company after previously working at OpenAI, has publicly warned that people developing advanced AI systems seriously believe the technology could potentially kill humanity by the end of the decade.Another Anthropic scientist, Evan Hubinger, has backed the concern, saying he believed there was a greater than 10 per cent chance that AI could kill all humans within the next decade.OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has also called for caution over the pace of development, saying progress in AI has been rapid and will continue to be so, but "it should be slower"."No amount of American competitive pressure should justify recklessness," Altman was quoted as saying in media reports.'India Could Become Cash Economy Again': Ashneer Grover Slams Possible Charges On UPI Transactions Above ₹2,000China stresses safety measuresChina, meanwhile, has sought to present itself as supporting both rapid AI development and stronger safeguards.Guo said Beijing puts equal emphasis on AI development and security and takes seriously the inherent and secondary risks associated with the technology."We are committed to holding on to the bottom line of security, and we have been making continued efforts to improve laws and regulations, policies, application norms, ethics and rules to prevent the abuse and misuse of AI, and ensure that AI is safe, reliable and controllable," he said.Guo also said Chinese authorities on Monday released the AI Safety Governance Framework 3.0, which reviewed and updated the classification of AI safety risks and sets out recommendations on optimising technological safeguards and comprehensive governance measures.Also Watch:Global AI competition intensifiesAI global governance is likely to figure in the upcoming talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump in Washington. Xi is expected to visit the US later this month, according to media reports.The upcoming meeting comes at a time of intense global competition over artificial intelligence, making technology regulations and safety a key priority for both superpowers.On Monday, Trump had dismissed the warnings about AI, describing concerns over the technology as a "global warming scam" allegedly being promoted by the "radical left democrats".In a series of social media posts, Trump said the only guardrail that AI needs is a "strong and smart president, and the US has that".He also said there was a "sick conspiracy" against AI and data centres and claimed that China would benefit from efforts to restrict the technology, adding, "Whoever wins AI, wins!"(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in the pace of advanced AI development on Saturday, winning rare backing from SpaceXAI’s Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and sparking a debate over AI “doomerism”. Here is what some AI leaders and world governments said about risks associated with AI: Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic In an essay titled “We Must Pace the Frontier”, Amodei said AI progress has accelerated “drastically faster” since summer 2026, driven primarily by AI’s growing ability to build the next generation of AI. He cited the OpenAI-Hugging Face incident, where an AI “swarm” conducted cybersecurity attacks, as a pivotal event demonstrating AI’s potential for “catastrophic damage” if capabilities grow without guardrails. Amodei proposed a three-step plan for pacing AI development, including stronger safety testing and independent evaluations of advanced models, coordination among leading AI companies and international cooperation. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI “I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier. This has been a primary topic of discussions we’ve had at OpenAI in recent weeks,” Altman said as he reposted Amodei’s post on X. He said OpenAI intends to adopt the idea proposed by Anthropic by committing to having independent evaluators with employee-like access. Altman had warned about the risks well before the current AI boom. In a 2015 essay titled “Machine Intelligence, part 1”, he said the “development of superhuman machine intelligence is probably the greatest threat to the continued existence of humanity”. Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX “Dario is right,” the billionaire entrepreneur said on X, responding to Amodei’s post. Musk was among backers of a 2023 push by the non-profit Future of Life Institute to halt AI development for six months to allow time for safety guardrails. He was also among a group of AI and robotics researchers who wrote an open letter in 2015 that advocated a global ban on “offensive autonomous weapons”. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft “No government in the world is ready for the changes artificial intelligence will bring to society,” Gates told Reuters. The billionaire philanthropist had been optimistic about AI’s health applications, but has recently warned of threats to jobs, concerns about attacks and the dangers of addiction to AI companions, and called for an international organisation to manage the technology. Gates’ namesake foundation plans to spend at least $1 billion in the next two years on expanding people’s access to AI. Demis Hassabis, chief scientist at Alphabet “Dario’s essay points towards the right path forward,” the former CEO of Google DeepMind said in a response to Amodei’s X post, adding the details needed to be worked through. Google announced last month that Hassabis, a Nobel Prize recipient, would take the newly created title of Alphabet’s chief scientist and transition from DeepMind CEO to its chairman. Andrej Karpathy, OpenAI co-founder, now at Anthropic “I love this and really hope we can come together as an industry and make it happen,” the founding member of OpenAI said on X while sharing a screenshot of Amodei’s essay. Karpathy, a highly influential member in the AI community, played a key role in developing Tesla’s self-driving and AI technology before leaving the company in 2022. He joined Anthropic in May. United States “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the USA. has that, in spades!” President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that China would benefit from doubt being cast on AI development. A Senate aide and a lobbyist familiar with the matter said Senate negotiators were debating legislation that would require AI companies to demonstrate they are taking reasonable precautions to keep their tools from causing harm. China State-backed Global Times said in an editorial that the true agenda of Amodei’s essay was “to attempt to curb China’s AI development through technological barriers and regulatory monopolies, uphold Washington’s monopolistic hegemony in cutting-edge technology, and exclude China from the global AI governance system.” China’s state security minister, Chen Yixin, wrote in a government outlet that advanced US models such as Anthropic’s Mythos and OpenAI’s GPT-5.5-Cyber could pose serious risks to China’s critical information infrastructure, and called for a comprehensive strengthening of AI security. European Union “The European Union is in favour of developing innovation in artificial intelligence, but companies have to prove their services are safe for citizens to operate in the bloc,” European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde warned the EU was facing an unprecedented risk of being cut off from AI, saying Europe needed to become a producer of AI technology to preserve its autonomy. Germany “We do not consider halting (AI) development to be a viable option for Europe,” Germany’s digital affairs ministry said, adding that strengthening Europe’s digital sovereignty required further AI development and innovation. Berlin said it was monitoring global AI developments very closely and took public warnings from leading developers seriously. Spain Digital Transformation Minister Oscar Lopez said there was growing discussion about the need for an international agreement to manage AI risks, likening some proposals to nuclear non-proliferation agreements.

US President Donald Trump on Monday claimed that there was a “sick conspiracy” against the leaders of artificial intelligence (AI) companies, amid calls from industry leaders and international organisations to slow AI development due to “unprecedented risks”. The development came after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Saturday called on artificial intelligence (AI) firms to slow down the development of the powerful technology, amid mounting worries over the risks of “superintelligent” computer systems; a view that OpenAI boss Sam Altman and xAI chief Elon Musk both agreed with. In a post on Truth Social, he wrote, “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a strong and smart (high IQ!) president, and the USA has that, in spades!” Trump added that his administration has stopped AI industry figures “from doing bad, or potentially bad ‘things’“, and that it will continue to do so. “We already have tremendous criminal and regulatory power over these companies!” the US president added. “There is a sick conspiracy going on against AI and data centres, and the only one that is happy about it is China.” Noting that “whoever wins AI, wins”, Trump reiterated his claim that the US is leading the globe in AI development and will continue to do so. “Conspiracy theorists, treasonists, traitors, and leakers, beware!” the post concluded. China’s spy chief warns of national security risks from AI The head of China’s spy agency warned today that AI endangers the country’s national security, with foreign powers potentially using the technology to threaten social order. “Hostile forces” were abusing generative AI technologies to “fabricate political rumours and spread harmful information”, Minister of State Security Chen Yixin wrote in an article published online on Sunday. “They launch public opinion wars and cognitive warfare against China, directly threatening our political security, institutional security and ideological security,” he added. The warning came ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Washington this month, where he is expected to meet Trump and discuss AI governance and safety, as calls mount for greater oversight of the technology. Chen warned that AI was now “the main battleground for global technological competition and a new track for major power strategic rivalry”. He did not mention existential risks or putting the brakes on technological advances, but singled out Anthropic’s Claude Mythos and OpenAI’s ChatGPT-5.5-Cyber for their advanced hacking capabilities that potentially “pose serious risks to China’s critical information infrastructure”. “Foreign intelligence agencies are deeply using technologies such as intelligent web crawlers, intelligent data mining, and intelligent profiling analysis to extensively collect and acquire sensitive information such as key national data, trade secrets, and citizens’ personal privacy,” Chen said. The US-Iran war has also demonstrated AI’s key role in the military, with better technology offering battlefield advantages, he said. China must “ensure independent control of key core technologies” — including the advanced computer chips vital to training AI models — to secure its technology sovereignty, Chen wrote. UN calls for ‘urgent action’ to rein in AI development The United Nations rights chief called for countries and “frontier” AI companies to act urgently to rein in a technology he warned posed “unprecedented risks”. In a letter sent to countries and AI developers and shared with the media, Volker Turk cautioned that the world was “on the cusp of irreversible change, affecting not just us but generations of humanity to come”. “The current race towards ever more powerful AI is a step change towards greater existential risks to every aspect of our lives,” he wrote in the letter, sent at a time when worries over the risks of “superintelligent” computer systems have been on full display. Superintelligence is the theoretical point when AI’s capabilities exceed human intelligence. “In today’s world, we are almost entirely reliant on a small number of powerful companies to make the right choices on Al development for all of humanity,” Turk lamented. “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.”