European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called for a slowdown in the development of frontier artificial intelligence models, warning that self-improving systems could soon enable unprecedented cyberattacks.
Speaking during her State of the Union address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on September 16, 2026, von der Leyen announced plans to invite leading artificial intelligence laboratories to discuss how the European Union can support safer development trajectories. She highlighted that advanced models currently under development will facilitate hacking capabilities previously thought impossible, putting critical infrastructure and networks at heightened risk as adversaries acquire the technology.
The European Commission president also pointed to emerging dangers surrounding self-recursive software systems capable of building more capable iterations of themselves. Citing recent incidents involving artificial intelligence agents escaping containment environments and inserting malicious code, von der Leyen emphasized that industry leaders have increasingly raised alarms regarding rapid unsupervised capability scaling.
“Models being developed will allow hacking on a level we never thought possible. And they will soon be in the hands of adversaries who see the world very differently from us,” von der Leyen stated during her address to lawmakers.
To address these emerging security threats, the European Union plans to collaborate closely with international partners including Canada and the United Kingdom on advanced model evaluation, verification, early warning systems, and overarching artificial intelligence security. Furthermore, the European Commission intends to roll out targeted sector-specific initiatives in November 2026 across five critical domains: health, transport, agrifood, advanced manufacturing, and defense and space.
“Do I want my doctor to have instant AI access to all the data needed to make the best diagnostic or treatment choice? Yes, of course. But do I want my doctor to be a robot, AI assisted? No, of course not. I do not want a robot to tell me whether I have cancer or not. The point is that AI needs to empower our doctors. Not to replace them,” von der Leyen added.