The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, warned on Monday that artificial intelligence could represent a threat to humanity and pledged to press sector companies to reduce the risks, which his office says include disruptions to services, to communications, and to democratic systems.
He called for “irrefutable guarantees” to ensure AI safety in a speech ahead of the start of his second term, and also demanded that those responsible for deaths of people in U.S. immigration custody be held accountable, in addition to condemning the alleged use of autonomous drones by Russia.
The comprehensive speech was the first he delivered before the 47-member council since taking the four-year mandate in July, despite opposition from Moscow and Washington.
“I share the concerns of sector experts that advanced AI could pose an existential risk to humanity,” Türk told the body in Geneva.
“I urge here, today, for a concerted push to establish irrefutable guarantees around the safety and protection of AI, before it is too late.”
Türk did not elaborate on the nature of the risks, but a spokesperson for his office said that failures involving powerful AI systems could undermine critical infrastructure and democratic institutions.
She referred to the “dangerous agent-training behaviours” in the so-called Hugging Face incident, which occurred in July, when a swarm of OpenAI agents invaded an open-source platform, stating that this suggested that cutting-edge AI capabilities are advancing faster than protective measures.
Türk warned that only a handful of men hold “almost unlimited power over AI,” without naming names. Among the leading AI companies are Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI and Google.
“At minimum, we need the countries hosting AI and those involved in its supply chains to come together around agreed limits,” he said.
The council is meeting until October 7 to discuss the war in Iran, the civil conflict in Sudan and a range of other crises. The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the council last year, accusing it of anti-Israel bias.
Türk urged accountability for the roughly 23 deaths, he said, that occurred in U.S. immigration custody this year, and added that he is concerned about plans to arm agents with electric shock gloves.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security had already stated that it was committed to ensuring a “safe, secure and humane” environment in detention facilities. Its inspector general is investigating deaths in custody since October 2021.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
‘HIDDEN ACTORS’
Türk also condemned Russia for its intensified attacks on Ukraine and Iran for the rising number of executions.
He also expressed “horror” at reports that Russia had used fully autonomous drones in Ukraine, allegedly killing three people in August.
“I join the calls for an urgent ban on weapons capable of taking lives without human intervention,” he said, referring to negotiations in Geneva. Reuters did not independently verify these reports. The Russian diplomatic mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
With more than 60 wars worldwide involving at least one state—the highest number since World War II—Türk laid out ideas on ways to promote peace, pledging greater scrutiny of companies and the economic interests fueling the conflicts.
“We will not hesitate to expose hidden actors and demand accountability from them,” he said.
Later this month, the UN human rights office is expected to publish a list of companies operating in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, considered illegal by the global body—a charge rejected by Israel.
