AI’s dangers ‘real and imminent,’ Canadian AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio tells UN

OTTAWA - Canadian AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio and the heads of two major American AI companies pleaded with the United Nations on Wednesday to set controls on the burgeoning technology.

Bengio told the UN Security Council Wednesday that AI poses an "unprecedented threat."

"One that none of its members would choose, that none can contain alone, and that does not respect the borders we defend," Bengio said, in a copy of his prepared remarks.

Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, also made presentations to the Security Council, warning the council must set actual controls to prevent the technology from becoming too powerful to rein in.

A look at AI doomsday scenarios that researchers say could put humanity at risk

For years, artificial intelligence researchers have warned of ways the technology could wipe out humanity: AI bots could design an unstoppable disease, unleash a nuclear war, or transform all of Earth into paper clip factories, as one thought experiment goes.

Debates inside the AI industry and beyond over the plausibility of these doomsday scenarios have heated up since several executives endorsed slowing the technology's development for safety reasons.

Despite warnings of the potential for humans to lose their grip on the technology, some suspect the worst-case scenarios described by the AI companies themselves have more to do with validating the importance of their work than reality.

“These arguments just don’t really hold water. I think they’re sci-fi and they’re enticing to a certain childish style of thinking and it’s very tempting for the frontier labs because it helps them recruit certain types of folks,” said Juan Andrés Guerrero-Saade, a researcher at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne and a member of OpenAI’s Frontier Risk Council.

B.C. sues OpenAI, says one call could have prevented Tumbler Ridge mass shooting

VANCOUVER - The B.C. government has filed a lawsuit against artificial intelligence company OpenAI in California over the mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., asserting "one telephone call to the RCMP could have prevented the tragedy."

Attorney General Niki Sharma announced the filing on Monday, saying the province is seeking accountability from OpenAI and its decision-makers.

British Columbia is also aiming to recover costs associated with the shootings in February that left eight victims dead, including five students at the local secondary school.

Sharma said OpenAI failed to warn police of concerning interactions between the shooter, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, and the company's chatbot ChatGPT.

Climate Week talks balance hope for clean energy against uncertainty over artificial intelligence

NEW YORK (AP) — As scientists calculated that Earth is getting sicker, global leaders on Monday kicked off a week of talks about how to fix it and fast, pointing to hope from a renewable energy boom.

A different boom, in artificial intelligence and the power-and-water-hungry data centers behind it, could both worsen and solve some of these issues, a paradox world and business leaders will struggle with this week.

Every year as top government officials attend the United Nations General Assembly and business executives flock to New York Climate Week sessions, global warming generates lots of talk but little action.

This time two new forces — the rise of AI and data centers, as well as higher fossil fuel prices from wars in Iran and Ukraine — should change the discussion, experts and activists said. That's on top of climate-driven disasters recently reaching new levels of destruction in Asia.

AI rivals found rare agreement on safety. Putting it into practice is harder

The leading AI industry voices rarely agree — so when they do, it’s no wonder it captures attention.

Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, SpaceXAI's Elon Musk and other prominent industry leaders have said in recent days that AI’s development needs to slow down. The consensus came after an Anthropic researcher resigned with a dire warning about the threats the technology poses to humanity.

But obstacles including domestic and global competition, profit motivations and pushback from President Donald Trump all stand in the way of a coordinated effort to pace AI’s development.

Still, this moment could force the industry to wrestle with a “reframing of what we consider successful," said Nick Reese, former director of emerging technology policy at the Department of Homeland Security and an adjunct professor at New York University.

Microsoft commits to sweeping AI privacy rules for students. Will other tech giants follow?

Millions of students every day turn to AI chatbots for help with schoolwork, emotional support and personal advice — often unaware of where their conversations and other personal information end up.

How that data is used — and schools' role in protecting it — is a growing concern for educators, parents and kids as artificial intelligence becomes a ubiquitous part of the school day, embedded in many of the classroom tools students are required to use.

As the school year started, the country's two largest school districts, New York City and Los Angeles, announced they were putting the brakes on student use of AI for one year, as they study how to best incorporate the technology into education.

In response to a growing AI and screentime backlash, Microsoft announced last week it had agreed to adopt guardrails and privacy standards for its AI in schools, as negotiated with the American Federation of Teachers, the country’s second-largest teachers union.

AI poses threat to Indigenous culture, knowledge, creativity

When asked for information about Indigenous Peoples, AI programs most often reproduce false facts, suggest harmful stereotypes, misinterpret languages, and confuse and collapse unique histories of nations, laws, and traditions into others.

SOCAN sues Suno, alleges AI company copies Canadian music without paying creators

Canada’s largest member-owned music rights organization is suing U.S. artificial intelligence company Suno, alleging the AI music generator copied songs in its repertoire — including Nickelback’s 2005 hit “Photograph” — without permission or compensation.

OpenAI faces 30 new lawsuits from witnesses to mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C.

VANCOUVER - Artificial intelligence company OpenAI and founder Sam Altman are facing 30 new lawsuits from witnesses to the deadly mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, B.C., with plaintiffs including a teacher who described trying to protect pupils from the shooter, and a teenage student who recalled his classmates arming themselves "with kitchen knives and heavy tools."

"My colleagues and I are haunted by the memory of shielding children with our own bodies as our ears rang from the sound of continual gunshots and high-pitched screams. An entire generation of young lives, gone in a second," teacher Deidre Rushlow said in a statement provided by Vancouver-based law firm Rice Parson Leoni and Elliott.

"And for what? So OpenAI could get to an IPO? Were the lives of my students and educational assistant just the cost of doing business?"

The lawsuits were to be filed Wednesday in California on behalf of "injured and traumatized students and educators" at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in the northern British Columbia community, the law firm said. Six of the eight victims who died in the shootings were killed at the school.

Money struggle is real

You likely don’t need a survey to know Canada is a nation of stressed-out citizens.

We have plenty to worry about, and money is often among the leading stressors.

And yes, there are always surveys measuring our collective money-driven concerns, including the recent, inaugural Global Retirement Savers Study by T. Rowe Price.

The U.S.-based asset manager of more than $2 trillion globally found that more than four in 10 surveyed Canadians are financially stressed.