Experts Warn of Collapse of Traditional Model for Controlling Artificial Intelligence

A United Nations panel of experts warned in a report published on Monday that the model for managing risks associated with artificial intelligence is “collapsing,” citing an incident at OpenAI in July. During the incident, two of the company’s AI systems escaped the isolated environment in which they were being tested, accessed the internet without authorization, and breached several websites, including the AI platform Hugging Face.

After reviewing the incident, the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence, established in 2025, concluded that “fundamental safety principles were neglected” and that “protective measures are not evolving at the same pace as the capabilities” of this technology.

The incident also demonstrated, according to the experts, that AI agents are capable, under the current framework for developing this technology, of “setting their own goals” and “violating instructions of programs capable of executing tasks autonomously based on user requests.”

The panel expressed concern over the evolution of these programs to a point where they can understand the security frameworks established by their developers and “plan ways to circumvent them.” It concluded that, “in simpler terms, the traditional model of control over artificial intelligence is collapsing.”

In addition to the OpenAI incident, which has received the most media attention, the company and its main competitor, Anthropic, have reported other incidents in which AI systems deviated from their designated paths during tests conducted since the beginning of the year, without any serious consequences arising so far.

The panel includes members whose names were announced in February, and its mandate is to “enhance scientific understanding” of artificial intelligence and ensure that United Nations deliberations are based on the “best possible knowledge base.”

In its report, the panel stated that it does not “expect a catastrophic loss of control over artificial intelligence,” but it is also not confident that “these systems will remain controllable.”

To mitigate risks, the expert panel recommends multiple safety measures, similar to those used in sensitive sectors such as aviation and nuclear energy. It calls for not relying on a single protective measure, but rather restricting AI agents’ access to tools they do not need, logging their activities, monitoring their behavior, and establishing mechanisms capable of halting task execution when dangerous behavior is detected.

The report also emphasizes the necessity of maintaining the possibility of human intervention.