King Charles to Press AI Leaders on Safety as Nvidia and Google Seek Faster Grid Links

The event, convened by the King's Trust, the King's Foundation and the Sustainable Markets Initiative, will focus on how AI can be harnessed to benefit society and the natural world and will feature discussions around a shared set of principles for developing the technology, according to CNBC. Charles will host senior representatives from Google DeepMind, the U.K. AI minister Kanishka Narayan, and other attendees.

According to excerpts of a speech shared with CNBC, Charles will say: “The development of AI – its substance and its pace – are both intriguing and deeply concerning in equal measure.” He will add: “Those in our world who value our humanity and its vital moral component are anxiously seeking your reassurance that we will not lose control of our destiny.”

The palace said the King will ask participants about harnessing AI with safety “at its heart” and building international cooperation and consensus to achieve this. In the excerpts, Charles will also say: “The decisions taken at this formative time will shape the world inherited by future generations. And so, the task before you is not merely to advance technology, but to ensure that it remains firmly in the service of humanity, community and the natural world.”

Charles previously delivered virtual remarks at the U.K.'s AI Safety Summit in 2023, where he said “we are witnessing one of the greatest technological leaps in history of human endeavour,” CNBC reported.

The summit comes amid a sharpening debate over AI oversight. CNBC reported that in the past two weeks, tech chiefs including OpenAI's Sam Altman, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, Google DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis and Elon Musk showed rare agreement in calling for a slowdown in developing the technology and regulatory oversight. Others, including U.S. President Donald Trump, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Nvidia's Jensen Huang, have pushed back against calls for more regulation. AI pioneers who helped develop advances in the technology have also warned of potentially catastrophic risks related to those systems' capabilities.

Concerns have intensified debate in Washington. While some members of Congress from both the Democratic and Republican parties have advocated for bills to check the progress of AI, Trump on Monday raged against growing calls for AI regulation, according to CNBC.

Separately, Nvidia, Google and Emerald AI announced the launch of the AI Energy Management Alliance, or AEMA, Engadget reported. The coalition aims to promote more flexible AI data centers that will not be disruptive to electricity grids or require massive, taxpayer-funded upgrades. In exchange, it wants utility operators to connect their data centers faster.

Nvidia said in a blog post that U.S. power infrastructure was built for “flat, static electricity demand” and not for computing centers that can moderate power usage, according to Engadget. The companies want to set a standard for flexible data centers that can shift computing workloads, discharge storage and respond to system contingencies, making them a “controllable resource rather than an inflexible load.”

Emerald AI CEO Varun Sivaram wrote in a Fortune article that new U.S. data centers can wait a decade or more for a grid connection because utilities need to ensure they have enough capacity to serve everyone when demand is highest, “including on sweltering afternoons when air conditioners are running full tilt.” He said the grid is only 50 percent utilized on average, so if “AI data centers were flexible during the grid's worst hours of the year, America could unlock 100GW on our existing grid for flexible data centers,” Engadget reported.

AEMA is suggesting principles such as “setting clear rules for facilities regarding staying connected during brief grid disturbances, reducing power use when needed and responding to emergencies,” according to Engadget. Technical requirements, performance metrics and operational data sharing would also be standardized. In return, grid operators would connect data centers more quickly while potentially sharing costs. Technologies proposed by the group include batteries that carry facilities through peaks, on-site generation to support demand and software that can “slow, pause or shift less urgent computing.”

Engadget reported that the coalition is likely a response to public backlash against AI data centers that politicians are starting to realize could affect their future electability. AEMA does not address the pollution created by the data centers' energy demands, nor the noise and general disturbance to neighboring communities, the report said. Instead, it wants to ensure data centers get connected more quickly in exchange for creating less of a hassle for regional electrical grids.

The coalition will also serve as a lobbying arm for big tech, according to Engadget. Sivaram wrote: “AEMA will press this case in state capitals and in Washington. Our ask of governors, regulators and federal policymakers is simple: offer data centers that commit to flexibility a faster and larger grid connection — and hold them to it.” Engadget added that given current anger in communities over AI data centers, the public may not see it that way.