EU Tech Chief Calls for Global AI Rules After Extinction Warning

Summary

European Commission Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen called for global artificial intelligence rules at a Dublin conference on online safety for children. Her comments followed a viral warning from a former Anthropic engineer that AI could ultimately end humanity, and she said international cooperation is especially important because protections are not global. Under EU law, companies including Anthropic and OpenAI must assess and mitigate the risk of losing control of an AI model. The EU has repeatedly advocated international coordination, while Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently urged Europe and the United States to work together based on shared security interests. Germany’s digital affairs minister has proposed an international AI-safety body modeled on the International Atomic Energy Agency. The EU is also watching how the United States and China address the AI race at a planned Trump-Xi meeting. U.S. Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder supported EU-U.S. partnership but warned that American companies should not be regulated so heavily that the United States cannot compete with China. Pressure is also coming from the European Parliament and national governments: Irish lawmaker Regina Doherty asked whether the Commission would propose an international protocol for incidents involving frontier AI systems and raise it at the G7, G20 and OECD.