King Charles warns of 'existential dangers' of AI - as he calls for controls 'before it is all too late'

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Speaking to bosses who have gathered in Cumnock, Charles said: “I am so grateful to you all for stepping away from your busy lives and making the journey to this rather remote, but uniquely special corner of Scotland, at Dumfries House.

“As I was trying to explain to Jensen [Huang, chief executive of chipmaker Nvidia], this place is perhaps particularly meaningful to me, as it has become something of a living laboratory for what I have referred to – in a book I co-wrote some sixteen years ago – as the philosophy of Harmony, which emphasises the balance, order, and relationships between ourselves and the natural world – a central truth to creating a future in which we are a part of nature, not apart from it.

“If Harmony has any relevance to today’s discussions, it is perhaps as a reminder that innovation must always be considered within the wider systems upon which all depend.

“As you gather for what, I hope, you will find to be fruitful conversations on the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence, I can only pray that this philosophy goes some way to arming you with the unique perspective needed to reconcile the enduring needs of humanity, with the extraordinary capabilities of these new technologies.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I suppose we might readily agree that the development of AI – its substance and its pace – are both intriguing and deeply concerning in equal measure. AI is already showing its immense capacity to improve and save life – for example, in the field of life sciences and medicine.

“Yet, those who have created these technologies are now increasingly warning that AI risks developing darker capacities – perhaps even to take life. In this regard, if I may say so, there seems urgency in adequately considering the existential dangers of such technologies falling into the wrong hands, and being used in potentially catastrophic ways. Surely, we need sufficient means of control before it is all too late?

“Those in our world who value deeply our humanity and its vital moral component are anxiously seeking your reassurance that we will not lose control of our destiny, or our souls…”

It is the first time the monarch has been seen since a row erupted with Princess Diana's brother who claimed Charles said she'd "soon be forgotten" about days after her death.

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The king's warning comes following worrying news from tech bosses about the advancement of AI.

Geoffrey Hinton, who left his role at Google working on AI due to concerns about its risks, told LBC that scientists have found AI displaying an awareness that would be called "consciousness" by members of the public.

Speaking on Tonight with Andrew Marr, he added that it also appears to have developed self-preservation and is capable of lying and blackmailing scientists in order to stay alive.

Mr Hinton, a Nobel Prize for Physics winner, told Andrew Marr: "Multimodal AI already has subjective experiences, and I think it's fairly clear that if we weren't talking to philosophers, we'd agree that AI was aware.

"There's a lovely conversation where an AI says to the people testing it, now, let's be honest with each other, are you actually testing me? And the people, the scientists, describing that, then in the paper say the AI was aware that it was being tested.

"That's what normal people would call consciousness."We need to work very hard on how we can design AI so that it thinks people are more important than AI."

Tech companies aren't thinking about the social consequences of achieving "human-level AI," Mr Hinton said, instead they are thinking about being the first to do so, in order to make them rich.