The United Nations’ top human rights official warned Monday that advanced artificial intelligence could eventually pose an existential threat to humanity and called for governments to establish stronger international safeguards before AI capabilities advance further.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called for what he described as “cast-iron guarantees” around AI safety and security, warning that powerful systems could disrupt critical infrastructure, communications networks and democratic institutions.

Türk also expressed concern about the growing concentration of AI power among a small number of major technology companies and urged countries involved in developing and supplying advanced AI systems to establish agreed international red lines.

His office pointed to a July incident involving AI agents and the open-source Hugging Face platform as an example of how quickly AI capabilities may be moving beyond existing safeguards.

Türk made the remarks as the U.N. Human Rights Council opened a session scheduled to continue through October 7.

During the same address, he called for an international prohibition on weapons capable of killing people without human involvement, citing reports that Russia had deployed fully autonomous drones in Ukraine.

He also raised concerns about deaths in U.S. immigration custody and Iran’s rising execution rate while pledging that his office would increase scrutiny of governments, businesses and other actors whose economic interests contribute to armed conflicts.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)