NEW DELHI: White House technology adviser Michael Kratsios said Friday that the United States &quot;totally&quot; rejects global governance of artificial intelligence. Kratsios, head of the country&#39;s delegation to an AI summit in New Delhi, made the comments ahead of an expected leaders&#39; statement setting out a shared vision on how to handle the divisive technology. &quot;As the Trump Administration has now said many times: We totally reject global governance of AI,&quot; he said at the summit, which draws to a close on Friday. &quot;AI adoption cannot lead to a brighter future if it is subject to bureaucracies and centralised control.&quot; On Friday morning, UN chief Antonio Guterres had said that a new expert panel convened by the global body aimed to &quot;make human control a technical reality&quot;. The advisory group -- aiming to be to AI what the UN&#39;s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is to global warming -- was created in August, and its 40 members have now been confirmed, Guterres said. At last year&#39;s edition in Paris, US Vice President JD Vance warned against &quot;excessive regulation&quot; that &quot;could kill a transformative sector&quot;. In New Delhi, Kratsios said that &quot;international discussion of AI has evolved, as this summit itself attests,&quot; noting the change of the meeting&#39;s name from &quot;AI Safety&quot; to &quot;AI Impact&quot;. &quot;This is clearly a positive development,&quot; but &quot;too many international forums, such as the UN&#39;s Global Dialogue on AI Governance, maintain a general atmosphere of fear,&quot; he said. &quot;We must replace that fear with hope,&quot; Kratsios added, saying that AI has the potential to &quot;advance human flourishing and drive unprecedented prosperity&quot;. He argued that &quot;ideological, risk-focused obsessions, such as climate or equity, become excuses for bureaucratic management and centralisation&quot;. &quot;In the name of safety, they increase the danger that these tools will be used for tyrannical control.&quot; &quot;Focusing AI policy on safety and speculative risks... inhibits a competitive ecosystem, entrenches incumbents, and isolates developing countries from full participation in the AI economy,&quot; Kratsios said.

White House technology adviser Michael Kratsios (File/World Economic Forum)

Americas

White House tech adviser Michael Kratsios opposed centralized oversight, urging innovation over regulation, while UN chief Antonio Guterres promoted an expert panel to ensure human control of the technology.

US 'totally' rejects global AI governance: White House adviser

NEW DELHI: Sam Altman, head of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, told a global artificial intelligence conference on Thursday that the world &quot;urgently&quot; needs to regulate the fast-evolving technology. An organization could be set up to coordinate these efforts, similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), he said. Altman is one of a host of top tech CEOs in New Delhi for the AI Impact Summit, the fourth annual global meeting on how to handle advanced computing power. &quot;For an obvious example, there&#39;ll be extremely capable biomodels available open-source that could help people create new pathogens, he said on stage. &quot;We need a society-wide approach about how we&#39;re going to defend against this.&quot; Frenzied demand for generative AI has turbocharged profits for many companies while fuelling anxiety about the risks to individuals and the planet. &quot;Democratisation of AI is the best way to ensure humanity flourishes,&quot; Altman said, adding that &quot;centralisation of this technology in one company or country could lead to ruin&quot;. &quot;This is not to suggest that we won&#39;t need any regulation or safeguards,&quot; he said. &quot;We obviously do, urgently, like we have for other powerful technologies.&quot; Many researchers and campaigners say stronger action is needed to combat emerging issues, ranging from job disruption to sexualised deepfakes and AI-enabled online scams. &quot;We expect the world may need something like the IAEA for international coordination of AI,&quot; with the ability to &quot;rapidly respond to changing circumstances&quot;, Altman said. &quot;The next few years will test global society as this technology continues to improve at a rapid pace. We can choose to either empower people or concentrate power,&quot; he added. &quot;Technology always disrupts jobs; we always find new and better things to do.&quot;

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi on February 19, 2026. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

Artificial Intelligence

Sam Altman urges global coordination and safeguards for advanced AI, warning of biosecurity risks, power concentration, and rapid societal disruption.

Articles tagged with "Summit"

US 'totally' rejects global AI governance: White House adviser

OpenAI's Altman says world 'urgently' needs AI regulation