AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio pushes back against Donald Trump's rejection of guardrails.

Extract from ABC News

• By Marina Freri

By Sarah Ferguson

• 7.30

• Topic:AI

about 11 hours ago

How fearful should we be of AI? (Sarah Ferguson)

In short:

US President Donald Trump labelled concerns about AI "a hoax" during a speech to the UNGA.

Professor Yoshua Bengio, one of the 'Godfathers' of AI has pushed back against those comments.

What's next?

Professor Bengio will address the UN Security Council.

Professor Yoshua Bengio, the co-chair of the UN's Scientific Panel on AI, says big tech companies are taking enormous risks with their development of the technology and there needs to be an urgent change of direction.

"Its shouldn't be the decisions of just a few CEOs or a few governments to figure out what's good for humanity," Professor Bengio told 7.30 from New York, where he is set to address the UN Security Council overnight.

The winner of the prestigious Turing Award for his pioneering work on AI said international agreement on safeguards is essential to secure humanity's future.

"Dealing with those risks … should be an urgent mission for humanity, so that humans remain in charge and that we keep human dignity flourishing at the centre of our choices,"

Professor Bengio said.

His comments came after US President Donald Trump labelled concerns about AI "a hoax" in a speech to the UNGA and rejected a joint statement from 22 countries, including Australia, calling for humans to remain in control of AI.

US President Donald Trump addresses the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York. (Reuters: Mike Segar)

The US "totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme to control the artificial intelligence being spoken of so much now," Mr Trump said.

However, Professor Bengio, one of the 'Godfathers' of AI, said the plea from the 22 countries was important.

"What happened with this group of countries is extraordinary and it is important," he said.

"And we have to continue in that direction. We need more countries. We need the world to wake up so that we can have influence on our future.

"The reason I am able to sleep at night and the reason why a country like Australia can make a difference is that we have agency right now.

"When we form coalitions, when we put our resources together, our minds, our energy, our talent, we can be in the game and we can bring the world into a place that's better aligned with our values, with democracy, and the idea that we should keep our sovereignty in a multilateral world."

'Like a recipe for suicide'

The comments come on the eve of a meeting in New York between Mr Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping where AI is expected to feature prominently. 

Donald Trump nd Xi Jinping are set to meet once again, this time on the sidelines of the UNGA. (Reuters: Maxim Shemetov/Pool)

Professor Bengio said American AI companies are about six months ahead of their Chinese rivals, but that competition should not get in the way of cooperation between Washington and Beijing.

"It is reason enough to sit at a table with the Chinese because, you know, they're humans too. They want to have a life. They want their children to have a life," he said.

"I think it is in the rational interest, self-interest of both parties to sit down and agree on principles like the ones that the heads of state put forward recently."

Professor Bengio says the greatest dangers posed by AI come from "recursive self-improvement" being developed by the world's leading tech companies — where artificial intelligence trains the next generation of AI.

"Imagine we have an AI that is smarter than us, so it is able to do that research and engineering all by itself," he said. 

"It could design an AI that will be even more powerful than itself and even less controllable and even more malicious. 

"That's like a recipe for suicide."

Professor Bengio will tell world leaders at the UN Security Council that they must act.

"The forces of competition between companies and countries is not healthy," he said.

"It is an international question because those powerful AIs, if we lose control of them, that's going to affect all of us."

Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian addresses United Nations in New York.

 Extract from ABC News

By Brad Ryan in Washington DC

• Topic:World Politics

26 minutes ago

Masoud Pezeshkian argued Iran was a victim of terrorism. (Reuters: Caitlin Ochs)

In short:

Under protection of the US Secret Service, Iran's president has become the first world leader to address the UN in New York while his country is at war with the US.

He said his country had been "victims of terrorism" and would never "bend at the knee" in response to US-Israeli attacks or economic pressure.

Iran says it has exchanged messages with US officials via Qatari mediators, but has not confirmed US President Donald Trump's claim they held a meeting on the summit's sidelines.

Iran's president has delivered an unyielding speech at the UN, describing his country as a "victim of terrorism" and declaring it will never surrender to US and Israeli aggression.

A day after US President Donald Trump told the UN he could "annihilate" the Islamic Republic, Masoud Pezeshkian appeared in person at the UN's New York headquarters.

He was afforded the protection of the US Secret Service, as is protocol for visiting leaders, and is believed to be the first world leader to address the UN assembly while at war with the host country.

"Yesterday, the United States's president described us as terrorists," Mr Pezeshkian said, according to a live translation.

"We have been the victims of terrorism."

The speech was mainly comprised of the arguments Iran has been putting forward publicly since the outbreak of war almost seven months ago: that Iran's nuclear research was for peaceful purposes, it would not accept limits on its nuclear program, and it would not succumb to military or economic pressure.

The only delegate in the US's seats in the assembly hall walked out as Mr Pezeshkian spoke.

"We will never bow our head or bend at the knee," Mr Pezeshkian said. "Iran must be understood by Mr Trump and those who seek to bully us that we are ready for dialogue and diplomacy and negotiations without accepting the language of force."

The speech was a "reminder that the US military and economic pressure on Iran can create leverage but don't necessarily produce capitulation", said Ali Vaez, an Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group.

"As long as there's a leadership in Tehran that believes its survival to be at stake, it'll opt for endurance rather than surrender," he said.

"But what happens in the corridors of the UN this week, in direct and indirect talks, matters more than what either side says at the podium."

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Despite the defiant speeches from both Mr Pezeshkian and Mr Trump, Iran's presence at summit appears to have opened the door to the resumption of some degree of negotiation, though there is no evidence of movement towards a breakthrough.

Mr Trump yesterday said US and Iranian officials had held a "very productive meeting" on the sidelines of the summit. In his earlier speech, he predicted a deal would be reached after the midterm elections in November, though his many previous predictions of peace deals have not materialised.

Today, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said on social media that messages had been exchanged with the US via Qatari mediators.

He said Iran had reiterated to the US that diplomacy would only be revived if the US met its conditions, including ending the war, ceasing its naval blockade and releasing frozen assets.

Iranians describe life under regime

Three Iranians have shared their insights on life under the regime, as the war passes its fifth month.

Reuters, citing Iranian sources, reported that Iran's Supreme National Security Council had ordered the travelling delegation not meet the Americans face-to-face in New York. The council includes Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters in New York that any deal with Iran would require "a lot of hard work over a period of time".

In his speech, Mr Pezeshkian spoke at length about Iranian casualties of US attacks, holding photos of civilian victims and pointing to the bombing of a school in February.

A UN-backed fact-finding mission recently concluded there were "reasonable grounds" the US committed a war crime by bombing the school. The US has not publicly taken responsibility.

Mr Pezeshkian did not attempt to defend the Islamic Regime's well-documented violence towards its own people, including the killing of — by some credible estimates — tens of thousands of protesters earlier this year.

He said Iran posed no threat to neighbouring countries, but did not mention Iran-backed militant groups elsewhere in the Middle East.

"Iran has never, ever been an aggressor, has never started a war and has always shown her commitment to the negotiating table," he said.

"They imposed the war on us, but we have proven that we are not afraid of fighting a war that is defensive in nature and we will stand in defence of our beloved Iran, our homeland, until our last breath."

AI industry left to police itself, as the US, China ignore the UN and bleak warnings mount.

Extract from ABC News

Analysis

By David Speers

• Topic:AI

about 2 hours ago

US President Donald Trump used his UN speech to forcefully reject calls for international controls over AI. (Reuters: Mike Segar)

Here's a grim question. Which poses the bigger threat to humanity: climate change or artificial intelligence?

Andrew Forrest, who is staking billions on both challenges, has an equally grim answer: "Let's just say that AI will be a lot faster. Maybe a lot less painless."

The Fortescue boss was in New York this week, a place heaving with world leaders and a foreboding sense the world is suddenly at an urgent and critical juncture on AI.

"AI may decide the best way to get rid of climate change is to get rid of humanity," Forrest told the Insiders on Background podcast during a reflective conversation from an office overlooking Manhattan.

If humans don't maintain control of an off button for AI, he said, "it may well decide to have the off button for us".

This bleak warning is not coming from someone opposed to the technology. Forrest was an early and enthusiastic champion of artificial intelligence and now has ambitious plans to invest heavily in the industry's future.

Andrew Forrest seems to be preparing to dive into the data centre business. (AAP: Bianca De Marchi)

The scale and success of Fortescue's green transition at its Pilbara iron ore operations, it seems, has caught the eye of the world's biggest AI players.

"We've got data centre companies, frontier AI companies, hyper-scalers super interested because our product is green and our product gives some independence from the grid," Forrest said.

At an estimated cost of more than $10 billion, Fortescue is set to deliver more than 2 gigawatts of solar and wind power along with enough battery storage to power fully electric trucks and mining equipment across its operations.

The goal now is to repeat this exercise "many times" over to build renewable-powered, off-grid data centre hubs across Australia.

"If Nvidia wants us to consume their chips and they want to do joint ventures with us, we're going to look at it," he said. "If Anthropic, OpenAI, or any of the other great players — and there are hundreds out there; we're only mentioning a few."

Forrest, it seems, is preparing to dive into the data centre business.

What's at stake for US and China as Donald Trump meets Xi Jinping (Kirsten Aiken)

The two sides of AI

Forrest's ability to dream big about jumping on board the AI revolution while also acknowledging the technology could end us all is a perfect example of the dilemma being confronted in New York this week.

World leaders, including Anthony Albanese, are looking to AI as a saviour with the capacity to kickstart productivity, drive growth and solve all manner of health and other problems.

There's just that small issue of its potential also to wipe us out.

The joint plea at the UN this week from various middle power leaders, including Albanese, for AI to "remain under human direction, oversight and control" was entirely uncontroversial. Their call for common global safety standards was consistent with how the world might once have dealt with rapidly emerging threats.

But once again the limits of middle-power influence were realised.

AI can be added to the list of things the UN has been unable to control, including ongoing wars and trade battles.

The two big powers who really matter when it comes to AI are ignoring the rest.

China's President Xi Jinping didn't even bother attending the UN General Assembly, skipping it for a direct meeting with Donald Trump at the White House instead.

Trump did attend, using his lengthy speech to forcefully reject the calls for international controls over what he prefers to call "superintelligence".

"I'm not going to stifle growth of something that will be bigger than the industrial revolution," he told his nervous fellow leaders, who sat mute through these comments.

Trump and Xi are set to discuss a new "AI dialogue" between the two big powers, with a mechanism to alert each other to incidents that affect national security. It's something, but nowhere near the clear, preventative safeguards middle powers would prefer.

Al industry left to police itself

On one level, this week's unsuccessful push to put some international controls in place is simply another example of the world we're now in, where the big powers set their own rules and do what they like.

On another level, this is a far more serious fracture, given the stakes facing humanity.

The UN's inability this week to reach any unified position, despite the alarm being raised by the tech industry itself, felt like a pivotal moment.

Albanese, for his part, remains reluctant to criticise Trump on this directly. But clearly, the US president's refusal to accept the risks of rapidly advancing AI and to do something about it is not the outcome the Australian prime minister was hoping for.

As for that grim question on the greatest threat, Trump argues fears about both climate change and AI are simply a "hoax".

The tech industry is now left to police itself.

David Speers is national political lead and host of Insiders, which airs on ABC TV at 9am on Sunday or on iview.

US 'drug boat' strikes breach international law, could be crimes against humanity, UN report says.

Extract from ABC News

By Luke Cooper

• Topic:Unrest, Conflict and War

about 16 hours ago

US military footage appears to show strikes on boats in the eastern Pacific in May.

The Trump administration's lethal strikes on alleged "narco-trafficking" vessels at sea could be considered crimes against humanity that violate international, maritime and humanitarian law, according to a United Nations report.

Since September last year, the United States military has launched air strikes on at least 68 vessels in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, killing at least 223 people.

Donald Trump says the operation, known as "Southern Spear" is necessary because the US is in an armed conflict with Latin American drug gangs transporting deadly drugs to America.

At least 223 people have been killed in lethal US military strikes on at least 68 vessels in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea since September, 2025. (Reuters: Supplied/US Southern Command)

The US president has also defended it as "self-defence" against groups such as the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua and Cartel de los Soles gangs, designated as Foreign Terrorist Organisations (FTOs).

The strikes began amid an escalation in tensions that culminated in the "capture" of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by US forces in a covert night-time military operation.

In a briefing note prepared for the UN Human Rights Council, Special Rapporteur Ben Saul said there is no legal justification supporting Mr Trump's perspective.

"Such attacks amount to serial extrajudicial killings in violation of the right to life," the report, published on Monday, said.

"[They are] unjustified in national or personal self-defence or under international humanitarian law, the international law of the sea, narcotics suppression conventions, or international counter-terrorism law."

What did the UN report find?

Mr Saul's report assessed the strikes' legality across nine areas, including the right to use self-defence, the authority to target individuals in an armed conflict, and whether the use of force was reasonable and proportionate to the risk of an alleged threat.

The assessment found:

• There was no right to use the strikes as a means of self-defence because the organisations alleged to be chartering the vessels "have not mounted any 'armed attack' on the US;
• The strikes breached international self-defence law because there was no proof Venezuela sent the alleged trafficking groups as "armed proxies";
• The strikes were not a "last resort" or "necessary or proportionate" because the US ignored alternate responses such as an interception or boarding of the vessels;
• The US faced no military hostilities posed by the boats, meaning "the United States [was] attacking non-military vessels and individuals in peacetime";
• There was no evidence people aboard the vessels posed "any imminent threat to United States military personnel".

In recent months, the US Southern Command has also targeted vessels it claims are refuelling stations for other drug trafficking boats. (Reuters: Supplied/US Southern Command)

Mr Saul also said he found "reasonable grounds" that the strikes constituted a crime against humanity as part of "a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population".

Neither Mr Trump, members of his cabinet or White House officials have publicly responded to the report.

Have the strikes been effective?

Have the strikes impacted drug flow? Not according to the UN report.

Mr Saul found there was "growing evidence" showing the military operation had not reduced the volume of illicit and dangerous drugs entering the US.

Colombia drugs taskforce concerns

Questions about the Australian Federal Police's new anti-drugs taskforce in Colombia have sparked concerns it could aid the US's strikes against trafficking boats.

He said the US Drug Enforcement Agency reported this year the strikes had not led to a decrease in the overall price or supply of cocaine into the country, and that border seizures had "remained constant".

"Further, much cocaine in the region is reportedly moved on container ships (not small boats), most of which are never inspected at ports and then cross United States' land borders," the report said.

"The military attacks have focused on cocaine and not addressed the primary cause of drug overdose deaths in the United States — fentanyl and opioids — which are largely not transported by sea from Venezuela."

The report also said the strikes to date had cost the US government an estimated $US4.7 billion ($6.6 billion).

Trump plans to ramp up strikes elsewhere

Despite the report's findings, Mr Trump has previously suggested the US could look to strike other parts of Latin America, including Mexico, Colombia and Cuba.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio this month toured countries in the region to discuss issues such as drug trafficking and illegal migration.

After discussions in Colombia, newly-elected President Abelardo De La Espriella announced a plan to grow cooperation with the US, which has already seen American forces contribute to Colombian strikes and raids against drug cartels in the country.

A military helicopter the US claimed took part in joint strikes against drug cartels in Ecuador in March. (Reuters: Supplied/US Southern Command)

On September 9, Mr Rubio confirmed he would seek $US45 million ($63.2 million) in funding for Ecuador to crack down on drug trafficking, and the US and Ecuadorian militaries have launched joint strikes on vessels off the country's shores.

Mr Saul's report found those strikes also included a "total extermination" strike in the Amazonian village of San Martin on the Colombian border that potentially involved "enforced disappearance, torture and forced displacement" of targeted individuals.

Some refuelling vessels in the eastern Pacific have also been targeted in air strikes after US military personnel cleared them of people aboard. (Reuters: Supplied/US Southern Command)

The international negotiations form part of the Trump administration's newly-created "Shield of the Americas" coalition, which includes the US and 19 Latin American nations, aimed at eliminating drug cartels.

Earlier this month, newly-elected Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori said her country would also join the coalition.

Report condemns Maduro 'capture'

In the dark of the night on January 3 in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, explosions filled the air and low-flying aircraft could be seen throughout the city's skyline.

Helicopters fly over Caracas during a US attack in the early hours of Saturday morning. (Reuters)

The operation to capture Mr Maduro involved up to 150 aircraft launching strikes on key targets, supported by naval vessels off the coast and US Army Delta Force special forces soldiers on the ground, the UN report said.

At least 75 people were killed in what Mr Saul described as plainly more than law enforcement.

Former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has posted photographs that appear to have been taken inside a US detention centre.

"It constituted a prohibited use of force … giving Venezuela a right of self-defence, given its gravity; and an act of aggression under customary law.

"Such transboundary abductions constitute arbitrary detention."

The Trump administration has accused Mr Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores of facilitating drug trafficking and firearms offences harmful to the US, which they both deny.

Mr Maduro and his wife's trial in the US will begin on June 1, 2027.

ABC/Reuters

The US wants army bases in Greenland. Here are the ones it abandoned.

 Extract from ABC News

By Tessa Flemming

• Topic:History

about 3 hours ago

US engineers cut a passageway for the Cold War-era Camp Century in Greenland. (Supplied: US Army Corps of Engineers Digital Library)

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The US is planning to establish two military bases on Greenland in the south and on the east coast, a far cry from the 17 in the Cold War era.

The Narsarsuaq and Mestersvig sites are part of a US deal signed with Denmark and Greenland at the UN General Assembly in New York this week. 

It is the latest in Donald Trump's plans for the island, which the US president has eyed off since the beginning of his second term for "security" purposes.

Denmark and Greenland have repeatedly said the island is not for sale to the US. (AP: Evgeniy Maloletka)

Today, only the Pituffik Space Base still stands.

But the Nordic island also bears the remains of forgotten US military aspirations: ghost towns that include a "city of ice" and a station where its inhabitants looked to have disappeared overnight.

Camp Century, the 'city under the ice'

The Cold War brought fresh attention to the Arctic.

It bore the shortest route between the US and the Soviet Union, and Greenland lay right in its centre.

As part of a US-Denmark security plan, American forces built several bases in Greenland.

In 1959, one of them became Camp Century, a US base 200 kilometres from the coast.

The Camp Century base saw dozens of US military personnel stationed in Greenland. (Wikimedia Commons: US Army)

US Army engineers built trenches in the snow and covered them with metal arches.

They used snow blowers to form frozen tunnels as long as 300 metres.

Encased completely within the ice sheet, Camp Century soon became better known as the "city under the ice".

Engineers begin construction into Camp Century's main plant tunnel. (Supplied: US Army Corps of Engineers Digital Library)

Its official purpose was to conduct scientific research.

Little did Denmark know, it also doubled as a US nuclear missile testing site.

Dubbed Project Iceworm, US forces built a nuclear reactor under the ice in 1960 to run the 200-odd-person camp.

Its eventual goal was to create a 4,000km tunnel system on which up to 600 nuclear missiles could be deployed.

It was believed the crisscrossing rail tracks would stump the then-USSR as to the weapons' whereabouts, geologist Paul Bierman explains.

"[It was] in many ways a strategic fantasy," he told The Conversation in 2026.

The camp operated for six years until 1966, when it was abandoned.

Engineers erecting an arch over Camp Century's nuclear plant tunnel. (Supplied: US Army Corps of Engineers Digital Library)

The tunnels were collapsing inwards, and the project was deemed too expensive to maintain.

A few years later, those who returned found the ice had frosted the tunnels completely closed.

What lay inside remained forgotten for decades.

Then in 2016, researchers found the portion of ice covering Camp Century could start to melt by the end of the century, leaving us at risk of its remaining biological, chemical and radioactive waste.

Abandoned station with beer still on the counter

Like a Cold War Great Wall, the US also established a 5,800km chain of radar stations over the Arctic.

The Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line was built to give early warning of a nuclear strike from the USSR.

It stretched from Alaska to as far as Greenland.

Four DEW sites divided Greenland: one on the west coast, one towards Iceland and two on Greenland's Ice Cap.

The buildings in the ice caps look like space-age stations. (Wikimedia Commons: Struthious Bandersnatch)

Those built on the caps resembled offshore drilling rigs, balanced on steel columns above an icy mass.

Eventually, the stations died from obsolescence in 1988; modern technology had taken over.

It appears as if the four stations were abandoned in a rush.

Those who have since visited the sites describe uncanny sights.

Books still piled on a shelf. A deck of cards strewn across the floor.

Those who vist the DEW Lines now see a virtually-unchanged interior. (Wikimedia Commons: US Department of Defense)

Toke Brødsgaard from Greenland Today said he saw a beer still on the counter of the bar and a dart wedged in its board.

"The site remains so untouched that it is as if everyone left the place at the same time when it was abandoned in October 1988," he wrote of visiting DYE-2.

The town mined to extinction

It is no secret Mr Trump has long coveted Greenland's mineral-rich island.

And up until 1987, so too did other previous US administrations.

Most Greenlanders are angered by the US president's threats to invade the territory, but some believe it could give them leverage in their fight for independence from Denmark.

Greenland's Ivittuut was once home to the world's only commercial cryolite mine.

Cryolite plays a key role in aluminium production and therefore made the small town of huge importance to the US during WWII.

The mine reached its peak production in 1942 when 86,000 tons were shipped to the US and Canada for fighter plane manufacturing.

Former Ivittuut resident Peter Barfoed told Smithsonian Magazine that about 500 US soldiers guarded the town's mines from Nazis during this period.

Historian Rie Oldenburg also told the magazine the success of the US in WWII depended on the Greenland mine.

"Without it, the Allied forces would not be able to win the Battle of Britain and bomb Germany,"

he said.

Ivittuut's cryolite mine proved indispensable to US war efforts in WWII. (Wikimedia Commons: Yoka donation)

After the war, Denmark continued to mine the mineral until resources dried up, and the site closed around 1987.

In 1985, right before its closure, the mine still shipped up to 110,000 tons of the resource to the US.

But without its precious cryolite, the town soon became deserted.

Now, it sits as a tourist ghost town, a forgotten symbol of the US military's lingering presence in Greenland.