Announcing Symposium and Roundtables — June 2026 in Rome
By Rufo Guerreschi on March 9th, 2026
As a key part of our The Deal of the Century initiative, we’ll be holding a symposium and roundtable in Rome on June 4-5, 2026 (tentative dates), titled:
“The ASI Race, Ethics, and the Need for AI Superpower Leadership.”
The US and China are locked into an accelerating AI arms race that no one asked for, but no one can exit alone. This is inevitably leading humanity to a three-way fork:
A) Loss of Control: No treaty or a failed one. ASI emerges ungoverned. The future of humanity becomes a deeply uncertain gamble.
B) Human Power Grab: A flawed treaty entrenches a durable global authoritarian oligarchy — a dystopia administered through AI.
C) Human Triumph: A proper treaty prevents ASI and reduces concentration of power — unleashing unimagined abundance, safety and wellbeing.
The timing of loss of control — if AI remains ungoverned — are highly uncertain but many experts, including Amodei and Musk, think it is likely to be 1-2 years away or less. Meanwhile, other major existential risks tied to AI misuse are looming if the race remains unchecked, such as biological, nuclear and autonomous weapons.
China and US International AI Policy
While China has been calling for multilateral global AI governance, the US has rejected UN and multilateral roles, calling instead on "the prudence and cooperation of statesmen". Yet, we have no public evidence of such cooperation yet. While Trump will meet Xi up to four times this year, starting in April, the current prevailing US policy is a declared, full-on, pedal-to-the-metal AI arms race, as is China, most likely.
While substantially and increasingly minoritarian within Trump's political base and also among most top AI CEOs, such policy is largely determined by the vision of one person, Peter Thiel, and a few AI officials very close to him: Sacks, Kratsios, and Helsberg.
While Thiel recognizes a risk of human extinction, he believes there is a greater risk of a treaty leading to a totalitarian world government, which Thiel frames in theological terms as the risk of the Antichrist. In his stated rationale, as codified in a famous 4-part lecture series in Silicon Valley in September, he therefore calls for a search for a third way, which will provide safety and prevent totalitarianism.
Meanwhile, Pope Leo XIV has made AI governance central to his papacy. Via a recent initiative by his leading AI advisor, in line with a 2024 New Year's message by Pope Francis, the Vatican has called for a bold AI treaty to prevent the most significant risks and ensure an ethical human future in the age of AI and brought eleven world religious traditions to converge on a Rome Call for AI Ethics.
The Pope's leadership, scientists' warnings, and AI advances are fast advancing a growing moral consensus in and around the US administration. US citizens are terrified. Not only do they fear for their jobs and economic security, but 63% believe it is likely that humanity will lose control of AI, and 53% believe it is likely to destroy humanity. 77% of US voters support a strong international AI treaty.
Leading US political leaders and commentators close to the administration, like Bannon, Rogan, Beck, and top AI lab leaders, like Altman, Hassabis, Amodei, and Suleyman, are increasingly warning about the risks for safety and concentration of power and calling for a treaty or ban of ASI.
Key Role of the Pope, Vance and Thiel
Meanwhile, in reply to questions about the extinction risk of AI last May, the US Vice President JD Vance deferred to the Vatican's unique moral guidance role:
“The American government is not equipped to provide moral leadership, at least full-scale moral leadership, following all the changes that are going to come along with AI. I think the Church is.”
To confirm the crucial importance of these debates within and around the US administration and the central role of the Vatican, Peter Thiel has starkly criticized such statements by Vance and he will hold new lectures on AI and the Antichrist in Rome at a Catholic university in Rome this March 15-18th, 2026.
At the same time, US AI lab leaders—who have been loudly calling for international regulation—are increasingly stating publicly and privately concerns about state control over AI (Anthropic, OpenAI versus) or the risks of a global treaty (e.g., Karnofsky's "Human Power Grab"), and in general trying much more to win the ASI race while paying seldom lip service to the prospects of a treaty.
Symposium and Roundtable Aims
The symposium and roundtables aim to build an influential consensus around core requirements for a US-China-led AI treaty-making process — one that secures US economic leadership, prevents loss of control, ensures subsidiarity, and affirms shared humanist ethics.
For the full program, participant profile, and event details, see the Symposium Page & the Roundtables page.
