King Charles III is set to bring together representatives from some of the world’s leading artificial intelligence (AI) companies in Scotland, as concerns mount over the risks posed by the rapidly advancing technology.
A source close to the event said the gathering, which is expected to take place soon although a date has not yet been announced, will explore how AI can benefit society. The meeting will be held at Dumfries House, the Scottish countryside estate that is home to the King’s Foundation, the charity of the British monarch.
Representatives from Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Nvidia and Anthropic are expected to attend. Google DeepMind is expected to be represented by its chief, Demis Hassabis, while OpenAI’s chief financial officer, Sarah Friar, is also expected to take part.
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The gathering comes amid an increasingly fierce debate over whether the development of AI should be slowed. US President Donald Trump and key allies pushed back on Sunday against calls to tap the brakes on the technology.
According to The Sunday Times, the event will be overseen by the Ditchley Foundation, which focuses on addressing global challenges. The British charity has drafted a charter containing a “shared set of principles” that it hopes participants can agree upon.
The principles would “help guide the future application of AI, not merely as a driver of capability and efficiency, but as a tool that upholds human dignity and contributes to the flourishing of both people and the planet”, the newspaper reported.
Concerns over AI intensifies
Concerns over the dangers of increasingly powerful AI have intensified in recent weeks. Earlier this month, a researcher publicly resigned from Anthropic, citing fears that the technology could eventually escape human control.
Another Anthropic employee, who remained with the company, publicly warned that “we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans”, saying he believed the chances were greater than “10 percent within the next decade”.
The comments have added to pressure on AI companies to address the potential risks of the technology. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei on Saturday called on AI companies to “pace the frontier” – effectively coordinating a slowdown in development to allow more time to understand the risks.
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The call was publicly backed by his chief competitors, xAI’s Elon Musk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman. The concerns have also reached the international stage. UN rights chief Volker Turk on Monday called for urgent action to rein in “frontier” AI, warning of “unprecedented risks” posed by the technology. In Britain, a cross-party group of lawmakers said in a report published Monday that new AI legislation is needed “to address the scale and seriousness of threats posed to human rights”.
“Nowhere in the world… has a current legislative and regulatory approach to AI that is fit for purpose,” said Alex Sobel, chairman of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, which produced the report.
Responding to the findings, Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s spokesperson said “we shouldn’t assume that the existing framework will always be sufficient”.
At the same time, the spokesperson stressed the potential benefits of AI, saying: “AI offers huge opportunities that we want the UK to tap into, from transforming our public services, improving living standards, and creating new jobs”.
