AI goes to court

In 2025, during an awards ceremony, King Charles of England personally presented Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, with a copy of a speech the King had given on the potential dangers of technology. This week, Huang, along with other CEOs from the largest AI companies, was invited to one of the King’s favourite places, Dumfries House, the splendid 18th-century mansion in Scotland which is also the headquarters of the King’s Foundation, a charity dedicated to education. The final list of attendees has not yet been released; the New York Times has reported that Sarah Friar of OpenAI will be present, whilst the Times confirms the attendance of Huang, Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind and Paolo Benanti, an expert who has previously acted as an adviser to the Vatican. A royal source explained that the King wants to “bring people together, listen to them and encourage discussion on one question: ‘How can we develop artificial intelligence for the good of humanity?’”. Given the recent warnings, the question seems outdated and humanity already all but doomed, but King Charles wants to create a space for debate – as he did on the environment – to discuss opportunities but, above all, “responsibilities”.

Also attending the meeting in Scotland will be the British government’s Minister for AI, Kanishka Narayan, described as ‘the talented young man’, who was born in India, grew up sleeping on the floor of a studio flat with his family in Cardiff, and later won a scholarship to Eton, which changed his life. Narayan has come under criticism in recent days for failing to comment on the doomsday predictions coming from American CEOs and because the British government’s position on the issue of regulation remains unclear: as everywhere else – except in America, where the president describes himself as too intelligent to fear the excesses of AI – there is debate over what rules – minimal or far-reaching, depending on the view – are necessary to rein in AI that has spiralled out of control. Some have asked Prime Minister Andy Burnham to build, for next year – when the UK will hold the G20 presidency – a coalition of the willing, whoever they may be, to govern AI.