King Charles III warned leading artificial intelligence executives on Thursday at a high-level AI conference at Dumfries House in Cumnock, Scotland, that rapid AI development carries “existential dangers” if powerful systems fall into the wrong hands, urging adequate safeguards before it is too late. The meeting brought together senior figures from Nvidia, Google DeepMind, OpenAI, Anthropic, the British government and other organisations to discuss AI’s future development and deployment. Buckingham Palace said the meeting was intended to explore principles to help ensure AI benefits society while protecting human dignity and the natural world. Attendees included Nvidia founder and Chief Executive Jensen Huang, Google DeepMind founder and chairman Demis Hassabis, OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar, Anthropic’s Chief Global Affairs Officer Tino Cuéllar, Britain’s Minister for Artificial Intelligence Kanishka Narayan, and Vatican AI adviser Paolo Benanti. Charles acknowledged AI’s potential to improve and save lives, particularly in medicine and the life sciences, but said warnings from developers meant its darker possibilities could not be ignored. He asked how AI’s benefits could be harnessed while keeping safety at the heart of its development, and how countries could build sufficient international cooperation so technological progress did not leave nations behind, saying decisions now would determine the world inherited by future generations.