WAIC Roundtable: AI Must Never Lead Life-or-Death Ethical Decisions

Generative artificial intelligence and agentic technologies have grown explosively in 2026, penetrating deeply into high-risk fields including healthcare, the military and law. Their transparency and safety have prompted intense international concern, making the division of responsibility between machines and humans an urgent issue in global technology governance. The event signals that the technology and academic communities are beginning to draw red lines around AI authority to prevent the technology from endangering people’s right to life.

At a World Artificial Intelligence Conference roundtable in July 2026, experts from several countries reached a strong consensus on AI agent governance and ethical boundaries. They made clear that AI must never lead critical decisions involving life and death, irreversible consequences or value judgments. The experts stressed that humans may authorize AI to carry out actions but must never assign it ultimate legal or ethical responsibility, and called for unified global safety standards to be established as soon as possible.