A joint declaration has been signed at the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear War, warning that artificial intelligence and nuclear weapons together pose an unprecedented danger to humanity's future.
Professor Muhammad Yunus joined fellow Nobel Laureates, including Romano Prodi, Jody Williams, Maria Ressa, Denis Mukwege, and Juan Manuel Santos, at the event, said a press release.
The Assembly opened at Borgo Laudato Si', Castel Gandolfo, with a ceremony featuring an opening address from Professor Yunus, alongside welcome remarks from Cardinal Fabio Baggio, C.S., President of Borgo Laudato Si', an opening address from Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, S.D.B., Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and introductory remarks from Cardinal Silvano Maria Tomasi, President Emeritus of the Domus Communis Foundation and President of the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly.
On the second day of the assembly, Professor Yunus took part in a high-level session on artificial intelligence, democracy, and the economic revolution: toward a new world order, where he delivered an address.
He also held a series of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the assembly, including with Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of Saint Peter's Basilica and president of the Fabric of Saint Peter, and Dr Qu Dongyu, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The three-day assembly concluded on Thursday, with the signing of the declaration at Rome's Capitoline Hill. Titled "Humanity at the Threshold," the declaration draws a direct parallel between the dawn of the nuclear age and the current AI era, arguing that the world risks repeating the mistakes of the past by entering an AI arms race alongside a worsening nuclear one.
The laureates warn that AI is eroding human judgment in nuclear command systems, fueling cyber threats to critical infrastructure, and enabling information warfare that undermines the shared trust nations need for peace.
Invoking Pope Leo XIV's call for an "unarmed and disarming peace," the signatories reject the idea that security can be built on fear or mutual destruction. They set out six principles.
1. Disarming the next arms race – urging restraint and cooperative governance to prevent AI and nuclear competition from shaping the coming century.
2. Responsible development – calling for transparency and accountability from AI developers and an outright ban on unsupervised, fully automated recursive self-improvement in AI systems.
3. Responsible use – demanding an international treaty to keep AI out of nuclear launch decisions and to protect nuclear infrastructure from cyber interference.
4. Responsible governance – supporting the UN's Independent International Scientific Panel on AI and new international institutions to oversee AI development.
5. Responsible leadership – emphasizing the role of young people and education in confronting these threats.
6. Nuclear disarmament—renewing calls for time-bound, verifiable elimination of nuclear weapons and reinforcing existing treaties, including the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
The declaration closes by invoking Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein's appeal to "remember your humanity, and forget the rest," framing the moment as one on which the survival of future generations depends.
Professor Daniel Holz, Chair of the Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; Cardinal Peter Turkson, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences; Archbishop Renzo Pegoraro, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life; a wider gathering of Nobel Laureates; and actress Sharon Stone also joined.
