Yoshua Bengio: AI is moving faster than our ability to govern it

Artificial intelligence is advancing at an extraordinary pace, but are governments and society keeping up?

In this interview from the 2026 AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, pioneering AI researcher Yoshua Bengio discusses why today's AI safety debate goes beyond technical questions to broader issues of governance, public understanding, and international cooperation.

Bengio argues that increasingly capable AI systems are creating new challenges, from reliability and cybersecurity to economic disruption and information integrity. While AI offers enormous opportunities, he warns that the technology is evolving faster than the institutions responsible for overseeing it.

The conversation also explores why traditional approaches to safety testing may no longer be enough, how governments can establish meaningful guardrails without stifling innovation, and why cooperation between major AI powers, and ultimately the broader international community, will be critical as AI capabilities continue to grow.

This conversation is presented by GZERO Media in partnership with Microsoft. The Global Stage series convenes global leaders for critical conversations on the geopolitical forces reshaping our world.