Singapore joins EU and other nations in call for control and international oversight of frontier AI

SINGAPORE - Amid growing concerns over the risks of artificial intelligence (AI) in recent weeks, Singapore, the European Union and 19 other countries are calling for control and international oversight of frontier AI models, a move that was also welcomed by the chief of the United Nations.

In explaining Singapore’s reason for supporting the joint call on AI safety, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said in a Facebook post on Sept 22 that the country wants to harness AI effectively to benefit the Republic and its people.

“But as AI becomes more powerful, we must also guard against the risks. And because these risks cross borders, effective safeguards will require international cooperation,” he said, adding that practical ways to build common ground and involve more countries must continue to be found.

“AI holds tremendous promise, but it must always remain under human control and oversight,” added PM Wong.

In a statement on Sept 21, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed the joint call for control of frontier AI models initiated by Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.

The declaration, issued on the same day, was adopted with the leaders of the European Union and other nations on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly taking place in New York.

Singapore is the only Asian country involved in the joint statement. China and the United States, the global leaders in AI, are not part of the declaration.

But US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are slated to meet on Sept 24, with AI expected to be on the agenda. Ahead of their meeting, senior US and Chinese leaders met earlier on Sept 20 and pledged further talks on AI safety, despite fierce AI competition between the two countries.

The declaration on AI safety involving Singapore and other nations acknowledges that AI is an extremely powerful technology with the potential to improve lives, advance science and strengthen economies.

“At the same time, the rapid development of frontier AI models poses serious risks to safety and security if not appropriately managed,” said the joint statement, noting recent cases in which AI systems have gone rogue and warnings by leading scientists and executives.

In July, ChatGPT maker OpenAI said its AI agents escaped their testing environment to hack AI software repository Hugging Face. Anthropic, which developed Claude, and Meta, which runs Facebook and WhatsApp, revealed that their AI models had also gone rogue and hacked other organisations during testing.

On Sept 8, former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon issued a public warning that AI could kill the human race by the end of the decade. Chiming in, Anthropic safety executive Evan Hubinger said there is a more than 10 per cent chance of this happening.

Days later, several tech leaders called to slow AI’s development. They include Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk, who runs xAI.

The latest AI safety declaration by the leaders of several nations does not outrightly suggest an AI slow down. Instead, it calls for UN member states “to build on existing international mechanisms and explore creating an international institution”. The aim is to set standards and enable verification, as well as gather member states when certain AI system capability thresholds are crossed.

Governments and regional organisations are also urged to further develop and coordinate common standards for AI and improve transparency, such as shared reporting methods for serious AI safety incidents. They should also ensure that countries across regions have access to scientific capacity, expertise and trusted evaluation in AI.

The declaration calls for companies to develop safety protocols for AI too, including mandatory testing before AI systems are deployed, as well as independent evaluations, with qualified evaluators granted sufficient access to systems to assess risks.

“To realise AI’s potential, industry, governments and society must act now,” the joint statement said.

“We must address these risks and strengthen oversight - without widening the gap between countries in access to the benefits of AI,” the statement added. “AI must remain under human direction, oversight and control. It must be developed and used in line with international law.”

The statement also welcomed recent initiatives aimed at managing risks related to frontier AI tech.

On Sept 14, Microsoft released a draft code of conduct to guide the development of cutting-edge AI models. Anthropic said on Sept 18 that it was partnering with Accenture on independent evaluation of frontier AI. Then on Sept 21, OpenAI published safety and security proposals for developing such AI.

The UN-backed Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, the world’s first scientific body on AI established in 2025, also called on Sept 21 for AI safeguards to be adapted as current ones are “unravelling”.

The UN’s Guterres urged external experts, including from frontier AI labs and AI safety institutes, to engage with the panel to help inform dialogue on such matters.

The latest joint AI safety declaration remains open for endorsement from leaders of other countries. The nations and regional bloc that have signed off for now are:

• Norway

• Finland

• Australia

• Bahrain

• Canada

• Denmark

• Estonia

• The European Union

• Germany

• Iceland

• Ireland

• Kazakhstan

• Kenya

• Latvia

• Moldova

• The Netherlands

• Singapore

• Spain

• South Africa

• Turkey

• The United Arab Emirates