King Charles Warns of ‘Existential Danger’ of AI Falling Into Wrong Hands

.Nigerian AI expert calls for urgent investment in data, others

Oluchi Chibuzor

King Charles, yesterday, warned AI executives of the “existential dangers” posed by the technology falling into the wrong hands.

He gave the warning at a summit he convened at Dumfries House in Ayrshire to discuss how the tech can be used to benefit society.

According to reports, those gathered at the meeting were Kanishka Narayan, the UK’s AI Minister, the Pope’s advisor, and participants from AI giants such as Nvidia, OpenAI and Anthropic.

His statement is coming amid a series of recent warnings from people inside the industry about the rapidly evolving capabilities of advanced or “frontier” AI models and the regulation needed to keep them in check.

Speaking at the event, the King told the executives at the meeting that, “Those who have created these technologies are now increasingly warning that AI risks developing darker capacities – perhaps even to take life.

“The task before you is not merely to advance technology, but to ensure that it remains firmly in the service of humanity, community and the natural world. The summit has been called to consider whether a shared set of principles can be developed to help guide the future application of AI.”

He said there seemed to be an “urgency” in “adequately considering the existential dangers of such technologies falling into the wrong hands, and being used in potentially catastrophic ways.”

On his part, Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, who was among top industry leaders that attended the event, said he believed safety was “paramount”, adding that companies should hold back a product and “keep engineering” if it was not safe enough.

The Nvidia boss also highlighted the value of open models – systems which give users direct access to the software – as a way to “ensure that people and countries are not left behind”.

He said these systems must also be protected so “researchers, universities, start-ups and countries” can develop applications “none of us would have imagined alone”.

“Let us lead with responsible optimism, build AI safely and securely, open it to more people, expand our ambition and solve the problems that matter to the world,” Huang added.

Meanwhile, Sir Demis Hassabis, who co-founded the UK AI lab DeepMind – later acquired by Google – offered a more cautious view on the pace of development.

Hassabis said artificial general intelligence – systems it is believed could be as good as or better than humans at multiple tasks – was “probably only a few short years away” and could have an impact “ten times that of the Industrial Revolution”.

Hassabis also said that the chance of something going wrong was “definitely non-zero”, but advocated for “a sensible middle way”, saying humanity could address risks if collectively given the space and time to mitigate them.

“The future is not yet written,” he told the King’s delegates.

Also, OpenAI’s chief financial officer, Sarah Friar, said that AI had the potential to solve some of society’s “hardest problems” – but agreed its growing capabilities raised questions about safety and “how we ensure it always serves people.

“We need to address those questions together. “No one company or government can do that alone and I’m grateful to His Majesty for convening this discussion at such an important moment,” she said.

However, reacting to global AI and data-centre race, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Head of the Centre of Intelligence of Things (CIoTh), University of Greater Manchester, Prof. Celestine Iwendi, called for countries such as Nigeria to move beyond rhetoric and invest urgently in data, computing infrastructure and indigenous AI capability.

Iwendi said the central issue is not simply who owns data centres, but who controls the data, who governs it, and where human oversight sits within increasingly automated systems.

“This is exactly what we have been saying. A data centre without meaningful data, research capacity, skilled people and innovation is simply infrastructure. The real question is: how much is Nigeria investing in data collection, AI research, compute capacity and local innovation?”

He warned that the global AI race will not pause for countries that are unprepared.

“We are still sleeping and asking others to slow down. No one will slow down. Countries that invest today in data, AI infrastructure and talent will shape tomorrow’s economy.”

Iwendi added that Africa must move from being predominantly a consumer of imported technologies to becoming a builder, owner and exporter of AI capability, backed by strong governance, responsible innovation and human-centred oversight.

Justice Joyce Abdulmalik stated this yesterday while delivering judgement in a suit seeking the disqualification of Senator Stella Oduah as candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the 2027 senatorial election in Anambra North Senatorial District.

The suit dated July 24, was filed by an aspirant of APGA, John Okechukwu Emeka, challenging the nomination of the former Senator as candidate of the party in the forthcoming general elections.

Oduah, APGA and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were 1st, 2nd and 3rd defendants respectively.

The plaintiff through his lawyer, A. C. Ozioko claimed that Oduah was not qualified to be on the ballot, on account of allegedly providing false information to INEC, in her Form EC9, in aid of her qualification for the 2027 general elections.

In a 23-paragraph affidavit he deposed to in support of the originating summons, the plaintiff alleged that Oduah in column E6 of her form EC9 submitted to INEC on July 11, 2026 denied on oath that “she has never presented any forged certificate to INEC whereas in her affidavit of facts that she deposed in 2015 in support of her INEC form CFOOQ1, she deposed that she lost her First School Leaving Certificate and NYSC Corps Certificate, whereas the issuing authorities had stated that she was never issued with those certificates.

While submitting that the First School Leaving Certificate is among the minimum requirements for anyone contesting for Senate, the plaintiff claimed that the 1st defendant is a graduate with a B.Sc. in Business Administration.

“That I know as a matter of fact that anyone who is a graduate in Nigeria must undergo the compulsory one year National Youth Service unless the person is exempted.

“That the 1st defendant had procured a letter from Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) presented the same to the 3rd defendant in order to make the 3rd defendant believe that she completed her one-year youth service whereas she absconded from the camp. Attached herewith as Exhibit “M” is a copy of the NYSC letter on the subject and a copy of the police investigation report on the matter which unveiled the fact that her name was not among those deployed for primary assignment.”

Delivering judgement yesterday, the court however dismissed the suit for lacking in merit.

The court, among others, faulted the commencement of the suit by an originating summons, stating that the case of forgery is a criminal offence which must be proved beyond reasonable doubt.

On the issue of non possession of NYSC certificate, the court held that it was not a ground for disqualifying any candidate in a senatorial election.

The court also agreed with Oduah’s lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN and APGA’s lawyer, Ifeanyi Mberi, that the issue of the former Senator’s qualification to contest public office has been resolved by the election petition tribunal in 2019.

Meanwhile, the court struck out the case of the plaintiff for being statute barred, having been filed outside the 14 days provided by law.

APGA had submitted Oduah’s name as its candidate for the Anambra North Senatorial election on July 7, whereas the suit was filed on July 24, three days outside the time allowed by law.