Bucking 'Huge Consensus' at India Summit, Trump Admin Opposes Global AI Guardrails

Published: Friday, February 20, 2026 at 5:57 pm

As delegates from dozens of nations attending a key artificial intelligence summit in India prepare to deliver a statement Saturday on how humanity should handle development of the rapidly evolving technology, the Trump administration stood out for opposing centralized regulation of generative AI."We are barreling into the unknown. AI innovation is moving at the speed of lightoutpacing our collective ability to fully understand itlet alone govern it," United Nations Secretary-General Antnio Guterres said Friday during his address to attendees at the AI Impact Summit."AI does not stop at bordersand no nation can fully grasp its implications on its own," Guterres continued. "If we want AI to serve humanity, policy cannot be built on guesswork. It cannot be built on hype or disinformation. We need facts we can trustand shareacross countries and across sectors.""That is why the United Nations is building a practical architecture that puts science at the center of international cooperation on AI," he added. "And it starts with the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence."The panelwhose creation was recommended in a 2024 report authored by a high-level advisory board created by Guterresis calling for a global AI governance framework and shared standards and monitoring mechanisms.Looking forward to Saturday's statement, Indian Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters Friday that "there is huge consensus on the declaration, we are just trying to maximize the number" of endorsing nations, which he said he hoped would top 80. The United States apparently will not be one of them."As the Trump administration has now said many times, we totally reject global governance of AI," White House technology adviser Michael Kratsios said in New Delhi. "We believe AI adoption cannot lead to a brighter future if it is subject to bureaucracies and centralized control."Although Republican US lawmakers' bid to slip a 10-year ban on state-level AI regulation into the massive One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed by President Donald Trump last July was shot down in the Senate, a bill introduced last September by Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-Wash.) would, if passed, impose a temporary moratorium on state laws regulating artificial intelligence.To date, Trumps most notable artificial intelligence regulation has been his July 2025 executive order aimed at preventing woke AI. His other AI-related edicts have rolled back regulations, including some meager steps taken under former President Joe Biden to bolster safety.As was the case during the breakneck nuclear arms race during the Cold War, US officials have attempted to justify unfettered AI development by claiming that guardrails would slow progress and give adversaries like China an edge. And as with thermonuclear weapons during the Cold War, experts warn that a poorly governed race toward general artificial intelligencea hypothetical advanced AI that can understand, learn, and apply knowledge of any subject as well as or better than a typical humancould pose an existential threat to humanity.With so much uncertaintyand potential dangeralongside the unprecedented promise of AI, an increasingly aware public favors caution. Majorities of respondents to poll after poll say they want more, not less, AI regulation.While very real, existential threats posed by AI are still many years off. However, there are pressing concerns over AI that are affecting the world today. Guterres noted Friday that AI can "deepen inequality, amplify bias, and fuel harm.""As AIs energy and water demands soar, data centers and supply chains must switch to clean powernot shift costs to vulnerable communities," he continued."We must invest in workers so AI augments human potentialnot replaces it," Guterres stressed. "We must protect people from exploitation, manipulation, and abuse. No child should be a test subject for unregulated AI.""Real impact means technology that improves lives and protects the planet," he argued. "So lets build AI for everyonewith dignity as the default setting. Let us be clear: Science informs, but humans decide." "Our goal is to make human control a technical realitynot a slogan," Guterres added. "And that requires meaningful human oversight in every high-stakes decision... And it requires clear accountability, so responsibility is never outsourced to an algorithm."

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