Russia’s Security Council deputy chairman said the creators of generative AI systems were “not being sincere” when presenting themselves as alarmed by the possibility that advanced models could become an existential threat. He linked that scepticism to what he described as corporate greed, suggesting companies would not willingly abandon technologies capable of generating enormous commercial value.
The remarks add a sharp political intervention to an intensifying global debate over whether the companies building the most powerful AI models can credibly police themselves while simultaneously competing for users, investment, computing capacity and technological leadership.
Medvedev’s comments came as several prominent figures inside the AI industry renewed calls for stronger safeguards and a slower pace of development. Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei has urged tighter safety controls and independent evaluation of frontier systems, while senior figures associated with OpenAI and other laboratories have also warned that increasingly capable models could create severe risks if their behaviour cannot be reliably controlled.
Those warnings have gained attention after researchers at Anthropic publicly voiced concern about the possibility of highly advanced AI escaping meaningful human oversight. Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic researcher, said companies developing powerful systems were “gambling with our lives”, while Anthropic researcher Evan Hubinger said he believed there was a greater than 10 per cent chance that AI could kill all humans within the next decade.
Such assessments remain contested. Researchers differ substantially over whether current technological trajectories could produce systems capable of causing human extinction, and there is no scientific consensus assigning a reliable probability to such an outcome. Critics of catastrophic-risk arguments say they can distract from present-day problems including fraud, cyberattacks, misinformation, discrimination, labour disruption and the concentration of technological power.
The latest dispute also highlights a conflict at the centre of the AI industry. Companies have poured vast sums into data centres, advanced chips, model training and specialist staff while at the same time supporting, to varying degrees, safety testing and regulation. Investors expect those expenditures to produce commercially valuable products, increasing pressure on developers to release stronger models quickly and capture market share.
Supporters of tougher oversight argue that those incentives are precisely why voluntary commitments may be insufficient. They say firms racing against one another could face pressure to shorten testing, keep safety findings private or resist rules that slow deployment. Industry executives counter that commercial success and safety are not mutually exclusive and that companies have strong incentives to prevent failures capable of damaging users, reputations and businesses.
Medvedev’s intervention fits a broader Russian emphasis on technological sovereignty. He has said Russia must reduce dependence on foreign software and develop domestic artificial intelligence systems, particularly where critical infrastructure and national security are involved. He has also warned that AI is already being used in cyberattacks, phishing and malicious software.
Russia has sought to expand its own capacity in generative AI as governments worldwide treat advanced computing as an increasingly strategic technology. Moscow has promoted domestic software, computing infrastructure and research while stressing that foreign-controlled systems can create vulnerabilities.
The international debate, however, extends beyond geopolitical competition. More than 350 executives, scientists and other specialists signed a 2023 statement saying that mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be treated as a global priority alongside pandemics and nuclear war. Other experts have argued that such language gives uncertain future scenarios disproportionate attention compared with harms already occurring through automated decision-making and generative systems.
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