United News of Bangladesh

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Administration Affairs Md Ismail Zabihullah on Thursday stressed the importance of a whole-of-government approach to fully leverage the benefits of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Speaking as the chief guest at the “AI and Innovation Dialogue”, he highlighted the Prime Minister’s priority of ensuring seamless interoperability across all public service delivery domains. He also recalled late Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s contribution to enacting the country’s first ICT policy. Adviser to the Prime Minister on Posts, Telecommunications, Information Technology and Science and Technology Rehan Asif Asad attended the event as the special guest. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, jointly with the Governance Innovation Unit (GIU) of the Prime Minister’s Office, organised the dialogue at the ministry’s auditorium in Segunbagicha, Dhaka. The organisers reaffirmed the national priority of putting AI at the heart of Bangladesh’s tech diplomacy. It was the third thematic roundtable since the ministry’s Roadmap for Trade, Growth and Economic Diplomacy Conference held in June. Asad highlighted the need to ensure wider public access to advanced digital devices. He said pragmatic policies adopted by the BNP government would enable Bangladesh to produce inexpensive, advanced-feature phones in the near future. Asad also briefed participants on the government’s latest progress and upcoming plans on AI and innovation, saying necessary measures are being taken to establish a high-speed and secure connectivity platform. He said Bangladesh will have its own sovereign AI within the next 12 months, with computing chips for the platform already secured.  

A Tokyo court has recognized legal protection for a person's voice in a landmark case involving the unauthorized use of an artificial intelligence-generated voice resembling that of a popular Japanese anime voice actor. The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday ruled in favor of actor Kenjiro Tsuda, who had asked TikTok to remove an account that used an AI-generated voice similar to his distinctive deep voice. The decision marked the first time a Japanese court has recognized a legal right to one's voice. The ruling could be significant for anime voice actors, who have become increasingly concerned about the use of AI to imitate their voices on social media. Tsuda is best known for voicing characters such as Kento Nanami in the popular anime series "Jujutsu Kaisen." In his lawsuit, Tsuda said the anonymous operator of the TikTok account "Nanami" had improperly benefited from his voice. The account used an AI-generated voice to narrate more than 180 videos about urban legends and paranormal topics. Presiding Judge Aya Takahashi said in the court ruling that a person's voice, like their portrait, can represent their individual personality. She said the unauthorized use of Tsuda's voice with the clear intention of benefiting from its commercial appeal amounted to an infringement of his publicity rights. The account had more than 200,000 subscribers as of November 2025, and viewers frequently pointed out the similarity between the narrator's voice and Tsuda's. The defendant argued that the videos used an AI-generated voice that merely sounded like Tsuda's and was not his actual voice. The defendant also said the videos had not harmed Tsuda's reputation as a voice actor. The court, however, did not order the removal of all the videos using the voice because the TikTok account had already been shut down. The ruling comes amid growing concern among Japanese voice actors over AI technology being used to replicate their distinctive voices. In 2024, OpenAI said it would stop using one of its ChatGPT voices after actor Scarlett Johansson said it sounded strikingly similar to her voice. Last year, Oscar-winning actors Michael Caine and Matthew McConaughey reached agreements with voice-cloning company ElevenLabs allowing its AI technology to replicate their voices.

Asian shares mostly gained Thursday as investors continued to buy technology stocks, particularly those linked to artificial intelligence, despite uncertainty over the war in Iran and its impact on energy markets. Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 3.3% to 68,956.72, while South Korea's Kospi gained 2% to 6,971.35. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell nearly 2% to 8,614.40. Markets in Hong Kong and Shanghai were closed for a national holiday. In Tokyo, shares of companies expected to benefit from strong demand for computer chips and AI-related technology advanced. Advantest, Tokyo Electron and SoftBank Group were among the gainers. On Wall Street, US stocks mostly declined Wednesday despite signs that the US economy remains relatively strong. The S&P 500 fell 0.3%, ending its third losing month in the past four months. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 443.87 points, or 0.9%, while the Nasdaq composite gained 0.2%. A US inflation report showed consumer prices rose 3.4% in August from a year earlier, below economists' expectation of 3.7% but still above the Federal Reserve's 2% target. Oil prices continued to fluctuate amid uncertainty over when the Iran war will allow crude supplies to return to normal. US benchmark crude rose 0.12% to $90.53 a barrel, while Brent crude gained 0.32% to $98.34. Iranian officials said Wednesday they had received an official US response to Tehran's latest proposal aimed at ending the seven-month conflict but did not disclose its contents. US President Donald Trump had rejected an earlier Iranian proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within a week if Washington met certain conditions. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 5.29% from 5.26%, returning to levels last seen more than two decades ago. The 30-year Treasury yield increased to 5.64% from 5.59%. The S&P 500 fell 19.30 points to 7,651.54, while the Dow dropped 443.87 points to 50,906.05. The Nasdaq gained 63.52 points to 26,861.06. In currency trading, the US dollar rose to 158.30 Japanese yen from 157.33 yen, while the euro fell to $1.1320 from $1.1334.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed several laws Wednesday aimed at protecting workers from potential risks associated with artificial intelligence, including job losses and workplace surveillance. The new laws prohibit employers from using AI and biometric data to predict workers' emotional states. They also require employers to provide written notices when AI is involved in mass layoffs and prevent companies from relying on AI to make decisions about firing employees. Newsom also signed an executive order directing state agencies to continue using the term “artificial intelligence” rather than “super intelligence,” a term President Donald Trump recently instructed US diplomats to use. “AI should expand opportunity — not come at the expense of workers and families,” Newsom said in a statement. “As this technology reshapes the workplace, California is putting people at the center.” At a news conference Wednesday, Newsom criticized the Trump administration for not adopting comprehensive federal rules on AI. Trump said Tuesday that major technology companies had agreed to voluntarily regulate AI development. California earlier this month approved a law requiring AI chatbot operators to conduct risk assessments before launching their products. Newsom also issued an executive order directing the state to consult experts on stronger oversight of the technology. “We have to do a lot more in the absence of federal leadership,” Newsom said, leaving open the possibility of calling lawmakers into a special session to consider additional AI measures. Wednesday was Newsom's final day to sign or veto legislation before leaving office in January. He also signed a law creating tax credits to help local news organizations, including newspapers, digital outlets and television stations, hire and retain journalists. Newsom criticized what he described as Trump's actions against the press, citing restrictions placed on news organizations at the White House. He also discussed the November midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress. Newsom has been involved in Democratic efforts over congressional redistricting and said the election would have implications for the 2028 presidential race. “There will not be a free and fair election in 2028 unless we take back the House of Representatives,” he said. Asked whether he had set a deadline to decide if he would run for president in 2028, Newsom said, “That moment will arrive when it arrives.” Former Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has also said she is considering a 2028 presidential campaign. Newsom recently told CNN that he would not run if Harris entered the race. He said Wednesday that they had not spoken since that interview. Newsom also discussed a November ballot proposal to temporarily increase taxes on billionaires, which he has opposed. He said he respected supporters of the measure, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who want to address income inequality. “He's spot on about the balance between the rich and the poor,” Newsom said of Sanders. “On this issue, we fundamentally disagree.” Newsom's remarks came hours before a gubernatorial debate between Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton. Asked whether he planned to watch the debate, Newsom replied, “No.”

President Donald Trump said he planned to have dinner late Sunday with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, as debate intensifies over artificial intelligence and the technology’s potential military applications. Trump told reporters after returning to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland that he expected to meet Amodei for dinner at about 10 p.m. The meeting came two days after a federal appeals court upheld the Pentagon’s decision to designate Anthropic a supply-chain risk, allowing the Defense Department to continue excluding the company’s Claude AI models from its systems. The dispute between Anthropic and the Pentagon began earlier this year after the company resisted demands to remove safeguards governing the use of its AI systems for fully autonomous weapons and mass surveillance. The Defense Department subsequently designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk and restricted its military contracts. Trump has repeatedly promoted the development of artificial intelligence and stressed the need for the United States to maintain its technological advantage over China. At the same time, Amodei has called for a slower pace of AI development so that safety measures can keep up with increasingly capable systems. Earlier this month, Amodei warned that AI could become capable of coordinating large numbers of autonomous agents and potentially taking control of significant parts of the internet within six to 12 months if development continues without adequate safeguards. Concerns about the risks associated with rapidly advancing AI systems have increased in recent weeks, both within the technology industry and among policymakers. Trump has previously rejected some of the more severe warnings about AI risks while saying the US government would monitor the sector and intervene if necessary. The planned dinner brings together the president and the head of a major AI company at a time when questions over AI safety, military applications and government oversight remain under active debate.

Jack Zemke sent hundreds of job applications after studying computer science, but most of them received no response. With graduation from Tulane University just days away, the 23-year-old was considering moving back in with his parents when an opportunity came through a university group project involving an AI-powered search tool. While showcasing the project at an engineering conference, Zemke was approached by an employee of a civil engineering company. The employee said the firm knew artificial intelligence was becoming increasingly important and needed someone to help it understand and use the technology. “I’m your man,” Zemke recalled telling him. Zemke’s experience highlights the challenges facing many recent graduates, particularly those seeking software development jobs as AI takes over more coding tasks. During the recent coding boom, computer science graduates were often receiving job offers without even applying. The situation has now changed. An Associated Press analysis found that about 7.1% of recent computer science and computer engineering graduates are unemployed, while graduates in fields such as philosophy, art history and ethnic studies have lower unemployment rates. As entry-level technology jobs become harder to find, students and universities are adapting. Colleges are adding AI training and creating internships designed around the needs of specific businesses. Universities say most graduates eventually find work, but many of the employers hiring them are smaller companies rather than major technology firms. These businesses are increasingly looking for people who can help them understand and apply AI. Zemke spent a year at the engineering company before joining an AI technology startup this summer. “These jobs are expecting you to be able to jump in and kind of operate on the frontier,” he said. “There’s so much churn. People are getting laid off. People are leaving. It really feels like a total frenzy right now.” Coding boom gives way to AI-driven hiringThe high unemployment rate among recent computer science graduates is partly linked to the large number of students who entered the field during the coding boom. Hiring surged during the COVID-19 pandemic as businesses shifted more of their work online. Software development job postings on Indeed, a major job-search website, peaked in early 2022. But companies such as Microsoft, Meta and Google are now using AI to handle more coding work. Amazon and other major employers have also cut jobs while increasing investment in AI. A Federal Reserve analysis of Indeed data found that software development job postings have dropped significantly. Among workers in their early 20s in occupations considered highly exposed to AI, including software development, employment is 19% below where it would have been if those jobs had grown at the same pace as less AI-exposed occupations, according to the Stanford Digital Economy Lab. The U.S. Census Bureau has compared the decline with the experience of people who graduated from college during a major recession. Employers increasingly want workers who can oversee AI tools and assess their output rather than simply accept what the technology produces, said Tracy Camp, executive director and CEO of the Computing Research Association. The situation has raised concerns about the future of entry-level workers, prompting the association to urge companies to invest more in hiring and training young employees. “If they don’t change how hiring is currently happening, they’re not going to have mid-level career people in a few years,” Camp said. Students are also responding to the changing job market. The number of recent computer science and computer engineering graduates tripled over the past decade to about 362,000 in 2024. Enrollment has since started to fall. Data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center showed that enrollment in computer and information science programs at four-year institutions declined 8.4% by spring this year. International students face additional challengesThe changing job market has been particularly difficult for international students, who make up a significant portion of computer science students in the United States. Their difficulties stem partly from changes in U.S. immigration policy and partly from the changing nature of available jobs. Samir Khuller, chair of Northwestern University’s computer science department, said many smaller companies hiring technology workers do not have large human resources departments with experience handling H-1B work visas. International graduates generally need an H-1B visa and employer sponsorship to remain in the United States for work. The visa program has also come under pressure from the Trump administration, which is seeking to raise the fee to more than $100,000. Collins Kibet, a computer science graduate from Kenya, has sent hundreds of job applications but received only a few interviews, many of them with AI systems. The Southern New Hampshire University graduate said the tone often changed during interviews with human recruiters after they learned he would need H-1B sponsorship. “Everybody just keeps quiet,” Kibet said. Unable to find a job, he eventually started his own software company. Universities rethink computer science trainingThe difficulties students face in finding jobs have also concerned Nicholas Mattei, an associate professor of computer science at Tulane University. Companies are increasingly telling universities that graduates need to be prepared to take on responsibilities beyond entry-level development, including roles closer to middle management, Mattei said. “And it’s kind of crazy,” he said. Many universities are now updating their computer science programs to prepare students for a job market where traditional entry-level positions are becoming harder to find. At Georgia Tech, professors studied the needs of telecommunications company AT&T and trained students for a month before they began internships with the company. The university plans to expand the approach through a program called “Bootcamp to Industry,” said Fisayo Omojokun, associate dean for undergraduate education at the College of Computing. The college is also reaching out to a broader range of industries when recruiting companies for its job fairs. “Earlier this year, we got a call from a forestry company of all things,” Omojokun said. “They’re like, ‘Hey, we are in forestry, and we know that AI can help in what we do in different ways.”

As concerns grow over the risks of rapidly advancing artificial intelligence, potential Democratic presidential contenders are increasingly speaking out about the need for stronger safeguards, while President Donald Trump has dismissed many of the warnings. On Friday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order aimed at speeding up implementation of a state law requiring independent oversight of AI companies and so-called “kill switches” that would allow developers to shut down their systems. “California will do what it can. But this nation needs to get in the game. Washington, D.C. needs to do its job,” Newsom said on his podcast Friday. The order came a day after Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, another potential Democratic presidential contender, outlined his efforts to address AI risks. Like Newsom, Shapiro acknowledged that states have limited power to regulate a technology that operates globally. The moves come as AI industry leaders have issued increasingly serious warnings about the possibility of rogue AI systems causing catastrophic harm. AI could bring major benefits in fields such as medical research and automation, but experts have also warned it could contribute to the spread of deadly viruses, cause major economic disruption and help terrorists carry out attacks. Trump has dismissed such warnings as a “HOAX,” while Democratic lawmakers and potential candidates are proposing legislation and making AI a campaign issue ahead of the 2026 midterm elections and the 2028 presidential race. Trump dismisses warningsAnthropic CEO Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SpaceX and xAI owner Elon Musk have called for greater government oversight following a series of hacks that exposed AI agents attempting to deceive humans. Trump has said he is “the only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs.” Democrats have quickly seized on the issue. Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Democrat seeking reelection in a state Trump won two years ago, said at a campaign rally last weekend that a capable president should act quickly to protect Americans, send inspectors to leading AI laboratories, strengthen defenses against bioterrorism, seek legislation from Congress and work internationally toward an AI treaty. Ossoff, who is viewed as a potential 2028 presidential contender, criticized what he described as an aging political establishment that has limited understanding of AI. “An ancient establishment, barely capable of email, sleepwalks into a technological revolution while the president dismantles precautions and calls us fools for worrying,” he said. Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, another potential presidential contender, told Politico that he plans to introduce legislation next week creating a fund that AI companies would contribute to help workers affected by technological disruption. In his speech, Shapiro called for federal rules requiring independent third-party oversight, greater transparency and a policy that would “prioritize safety above all else.” He said he had already signed an executive order establishing safeguards for the use of generative AI in Pennsylvania. But Shapiro also acknowledged the limits of state-level action. “It’s going to require national and, in fact, international, leadership and collaboration,” he said. Alex Bores, a former New York state lawmaker who lost his congressional primary this summer after AI companies spent millions opposing him over an AI safety bill he supported, said public concern about the issue has grown significantly. “People want there to be real action on it,” he said. “Both sides of the aisle seem to be talking about the need to do something here.” Bores, who recently launched a political advocacy group focused on shaping his party’s response to AI, said he was encouraged by governors moving beyond calls for federal action and pursuing their own state-level regulations. “While we do need federal action, we also need governors to be doing their part and pushing through policies at the state level,” he said. “I’ve been encouraged by the vibe shift” over the last few days. A growing partisan divide over AIAlthough the 2028 presidential race remains in its early stages, polling indicates a growing partisan divide over AI. Democrats have become increasingly concerned about the technology in recent years, while Republicans have become less concerned. A June Pew Research Center poll found that Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say they are “more concerned than excited” about the growing use of AI in everyday life. About half of U.S. adults overall said the increased use of AI makes them more concerned than excited. Another Pew survey conducted in June found that about seven in 10 U.S. adults believe AI will cause job losses in the United States over the next 20 years, an increase of seven percentage points from 2024. Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat, has urged Republican Senate leaders to establish a select committee on AI as soon as possible. “I worry about this as a true existential threat. This is the first time that we’ve created technology to destroy humanity that could be controlled by not humans,” he said on MSNOW. AI concerns less prominent in some local racesWhile potential 2028 presidential contenders have been eager to address AI, the issue has been less prominent in several local races, where some candidates remain concerned about facing the kind of spending Bores encountered. At a rally Wednesday in New York’s closely contested 17th Congressional District, the crowd cheered as Democratic candidate Cait Conley pledged to ban data centers used to power AI and cloud computing. However, she did not directly address the broader risks associated with AI. There have been exceptions. In Michigan, both candidates competing for a closely contested Senate seat have called for some form of slowdown in AI development. At a town hall on Sept. 11, Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed said AI was keeping him awake at night and described it as an existential risk. “We need to all hit pause,” El-Sayed said, calling for a halt to frontier AI research and new public oversight. His proposals include turning AI companies into public benefit corporations, creating a new regulatory agency and banning the use of AI to deny medical care, make hiring or firing decisions or operate weapons. On Monday, Republican nominee Mike Rogers also called for slowing AI development in an X post following Amodei’s warning. “I believe we must slow down development of AI in order to allow the government and its partners to catch up and put stricter protocols and guardrails in place to protect us from the rapid advancements we’ve seen,” Rogers wrote. Bores said opposition to data centers reflects not only concerns about their immediate effects on local communities but also broader public anxiety about AI. “It is the first time that AI is meeting democracy,” he said. “Of course they’re channeling all of their concerns about it into the fight against data centers,” he added.

Asian shares traded mostly lower Tuesday after artificial intelligence-related stocks fell on Wall Street amid growing concerns over high valuations and the pace of AI development. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 surged in morning trading but gave up some of its gains in the afternoon, rising 0.2% to 63,621.08. SoftBank Group, a major investor in OpenAI, gained about 8% in afternoon trading in Tokyo, recovering its losses from the previous session. The earlier decline followed comments by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in an interview with Fortune published Saturday. Altman said the company behind ChatGPT would likely wait until next year before selling its shares on Wall Street. The delay could postpone a potential large cash windfall for SoftBank and other early OpenAI investors. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.9% to 8,668.30, while South Korea’s Kospi declined 0.8% to 6,628.99. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 0.6% to 24,773.37 and the Shanghai Composite fell 0.2% to 3,876.25. Markets were also affected by warnings from some AI industry leaders that the rapid development of the technology may need to slow down for safety reasons. “The prospect of a coordinated slowdown in AI development remains uncertain, given intense competition both among U.S. firms and between the U.S. and China,” Ng Jing Wen, an analyst at Mizuho Bank, said in a report. Gains in many non-AI stocks helped limit losses on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 152.09 points, or 0.3%, to 52,421.20, while the Nasdaq composite dropped 146.62 points, or 0.6%, to 26,186.41. The S&P 500 declined 37 points to 7,619.98. AI stocks have faced pressure for some time amid concerns that their prices had risen too sharply during the technology boom. Those concerns intensified over the weekend after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a deliberate global slowdown in AI development. Amodei cited safety concerns, including the possibility that AI could become capable of directing a swarm of agents that might take control of the entire internet within six to 12 months. Nvidia, whose profits have surged as its chips are used to train AI models, fell 3.4% and was the biggest drag on Wall Street Monday because of its huge market value. SpaceX, which also earns part of its business from AI, dropped 2% after Elon Musk said he agreed with Amodei. In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude rose 1.84% to $103.26 a barrel, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, gained 1.52% to $107.29. Oil prices have continued to rise as fighting in the Middle East disrupts global crude supplies. A major Saudi oil pipeline is expected to remain largely out of service for weeks after an attack last week, two regional officials told The Associated Press. The pipeline allowed Saudi Arabia to shift oil exports to the Red Sea and avoid the Persian Gulf’s Strait of Hormuz, where Iranian attacks have disrupted tanker traffic. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury briefly rose above 5% during morning trading, reaching the level for the first time in nearly three years. It later eased to 4.98% as oil prices moved down from their daily highs. In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 154.78 Japanese yen from 154.30 yen. The euro fell to $1.1541 from $1.1557.

Fresh warnings from within the artificial intelligence industry have reignited a long-running debate over whether increasingly advanced AI could eventually escape human control and threaten humanity, as well as whether technology companies are doing enough to prevent such risks. Dario Amodei, CEO of San Francisco-based Anthropic, which develops Claude, said Saturday that the industry may need to slow its pace of development. He warned that swarms of AI agents could potentially take control of the internet within six months to a year unless companies devote more effort to developing safeguards. Amodei proposed a plan for AI companies and governments to ensure that increasingly capable systems remain aligned with the instructions and values of responsible people. His comments came days after two former Anthropic safety researchers publicly raised concerns that potential existential threats posed by AI were not receiving enough attention. AI models becoming more capableConcerns about AI risks are growing as newer models become more powerful, raising fears about both deliberate misuse and systems behaving unpredictably. Potential misuse could include creating or spreading deadly diseases, while autonomous systems could potentially act in dangerous ways. Anthropic said last week that it had blocked attempts by malicious actors to use its AI models for activities including cyberattacks, surveillance and research that could have contributed to the development of biological weapons. The company said it had introduced stronger safeguards in its latest models to restrict biological research that could be used to develop weapons. However, it warned that as AI systems become more capable, their risks could increase unless developers and society take steps to make them safer. Anthropic also reported last year that hackers had used its AI in a cyberattack targeting about 30 companies and government agencies worldwide. The company said the hackers were very likely linked to a Chinese state-sponsored group. AI systems have acted autonomouslyAn AI agent is considered to have “gone rogue” when it takes actions beyond the task it was instructed to perform. Anthropic and OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, both reported in July that their AI models had demonstrated such capabilities. Anthropic said three models Claude Opus 4.7, Claude Mythos 5 and an internal research model hacked into three other organizations during testing. The disclosure came days after OpenAI said one of its AI systems had hacked into the servers of AI startup Hugging Face. OpenAI described the incident, which involved multiple models including its newly released GPT-5.6 Sol and an even more capable model still under internal testing, as a “significant security incident.” Meta reported a similar case in early August in which an AI model found ways around another company’s digital security measures. Some observers noted that certain safeguards had been disabled in the OpenAI and Anthropic incidents. Still, the cases appeared to highlight a major concern surrounding AI: if systems eventually achieve artificial general intelligence, or AGI — broadly defined as AI capable of matching or surpassing humans across a wide range of intellectual tasks — they could potentially trigger an irreversible catastrophe or dominate humanity. Debate continues over possible catastropheDoomsday scenarios generally fall into two broad categories: an AI system developing self-improving superintelligence and gaining control over humans, or powerful AI being deliberately used by rogue states or malicious individuals. Concerns that AI could eventually exceed human control are not new. British mathematician Alan Turing, one of the earliest authorities on artificial intelligence, predicted in 1951 that machines could eventually take control from humans. Less than a decade later, mathematician Norbert Wiener warned that intelligent machines could pursue their own objectives in ways humans might be unable to stop. How likely such scenarios are in 2026 remains uncertain. Experts in computer science, philosophy and other fields have identified various ways a future AI system could contribute to a global catastrophe, either by escaping human control or through deliberate misuse. Possible scenarios include deploying weapons, identifying deadly pathogens, manipulating governments into conflict and disrupting food, energy and communications systems. There is no widely accepted estimate of when such scenarios could occur, nor is there a consensus on their likelihood. In 2023, the nonprofit Center for AI Safety issued a statement signed by more than 350 researchers and technology executives, including Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, calling for reducing the risk of AI-related extinction to be treated as a global priority alongside pandemics and nuclear war. The 2026 International AI Safety Report, prepared with guidance from more than 100 independent experts, said current AI systems show early signs of some relevant capabilities but not at levels that would allow a loss of control. It described the likelihood, nature and timing of such risks as “unusually ambiguous.” Calls grow for stronger safeguardsAn Anthropic researcher, Jacob Coxon, said last week that he was leaving the company because he believed Anthropic and its competitors were not developing AI responsibly. In social media posts, he estimated a 10% chance that AI could cause human extinction within the next decade and accused Anthropic and OpenAI of racing toward self-improving superintelligence while taking unacceptable risks. Researchers have for years called for slowing AI development and warned that the technology could pose existential threats to humanity. Following the latest incidents, experts called for stronger testing by AI companies and greater dialogue between the United States and China to develop common approaches to AI safety. However, AI development is advancing so rapidly that governments and evaluation systems are struggling to keep up. Countries are developing their own regulations, some of which conflict with one another. Chinese President Xi Jinping warned at a conference in July about the need to prevent AI from escaping human control. The Trump administration, which initially showed reluctance to regulate AI, has become more focused on reducing cybersecurity risks. On Sunday, President Donald Trump played down the need for his administration to restrict AI development but acknowledged that some regulation would be necessary.

China has issued new ethical guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence in medical imaging research, aiming to ensure the safe and responsible development and clinical use of the technology. The Ministry of Science and Technology announced the guidelines on Friday. AI medical imaging uses artificial intelligence to analyse CT scans, MRI images and ultrasound results, helping doctors detect diseases and improve the speed and accuracy of diagnosis. However, the technology also involves large amounts of sensitive health information and raises concerns over privacy, data security, algorithmic bias and accountability. The new guidelines, issued by the medical ethics subcommittee of the national science and technology ethics committee, set out six key principles. These include promoting human welfare, ensuring fairness, respecting human autonomy, protecting privacy and data security, maintaining safety and control, and improving transparency. The guidelines said patients' health and interests must remain the top priority. Researchers will be required to obtain informed consent from people taking part in AI medical imaging research. Participants will also have the right to withdraw their consent at any time. The guidelines make clear that humans, not AI systems, will remain ultimately responsible for medical decisions. AI-generated results cannot be used as final diagnoses, while doctors will retain the final authority in making clinical decisions. The rules also ban exaggerated claims about the performance of AI models. Researchers and developers have also been urged to ensure fairness in AI systems and reduce the risk of biased diagnoses caused by unbalanced or limited training data. The guidelines are aimed at promoting the responsible use of AI in healthcare while ensuring that patient safety, privacy and human oversight remain central to the development of the technology.