Minister asks graduates to help drive human-centered AI development

Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan warned at the United Nations that it is too late to pause the development of artificial intelligence (AI), as the technology's capabilities are advancing faster than people's understanding of the associated risks. Speaking on September 26, Balakrishnan called for nations to create new rules together and be prepared to establish new institutions for doing so if necessary, given the rapid progression of AI.

In his speech, Balakrishnan highlighted three main categories of risk associated with AI. Firstly, the loss of control over autonomous systems. Secondly, rogue actors potentially using AI to create bioweapons or other weapons of mass destruction or mass disruption. Lastly, economic, social, political, and domestic disruptions are only just emerging, he said.

Balakrishnan stressed that it is no longer feasible to halt AI development due to several factors, including superpower rivalry and the significant financial incentives for companies already possessing frontier models. He emphasized that the genie is already out of the bottle and urged all options to be explored, including a UN framework convention on AI safeguards.

Balakrishnan expressed the importance of humans remaining in control and accountable, using a thought experiment to illustrate his point: would one prefer the nuclear button to be in the hands of a human or AI? Toward the end of his address, Balakrishnan called for laying the groundwork for global cooperation on AI, emphasizing that it must begin now. Similarly, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also stressed the need for a common international legal framework for AI during his UN speech.

Earlier in the month, several prominent industry leaders had called for a slowdown in AI development, citing substantial, perhaps even existential, safety risks. However, United States President Donald Trump dismissed AI safety concerns as a hoax earlier in the month.