Addressing the valedictory session of the 7th Global Fintech Fest 2026, the Finance Minister raised concerns over the unchecked acceleration of frontier
Artificial Intelligence and the risks it could pose if safeguards fail to keep pace. The Finance Minister stated, "again, just this week, public attention was drawn across global markets when a researcher, resigned from one of the world's leading AI laboratories. He stated publicly that commercial frontier labs are 'racing straight to self-improving superintelligence and gambling with our lives.' What gave that resignation its weight was not the social media post itself, but that senior figures within the frontier ecosystem acknowledged the substance of his warning. Is there a case to examine that warning closely, or do we simply assume the risk is overstated? I raise this not to cause alarm, but to emphasize institutional accountability towards larger humanity. When an insider steps away on matters of safety and alignment, the public takes notice, and doubts voiced from within carry weight that external criticism never matches. Who from the global AI industry will stand up and reassure the public? Who will demonstrate that safeguards are actually keeping pace with speed? Where is the structured, collective effort to provide credible and transparent answers? It is common knowledge that technology alone can engineer the solutions to the vulnerabilities that technology creates. Unless those safeguards arrive quickly and update continuously, the question of AI going rogue is left for society at large to answer. That is an unsustainable distribution of risk." The Finance Minister cautioned that AI could become a systemic threat if it develops without adequate controls. She stated, "as we rapidly progress into the era of Agentic AI, tokenisation, and quantum computing, we all need to ask a critical question to ourselves: how do we balance breakthrough efficiency against emerging systemic risk? The benefits of newer technologies are evident. Tokenisation cuts out unnecessary intermediaries, making asset transfers almost instantaneous. Agentic AI moves beyond giving recommendations to taking direct actions, compressing multi-day processes into seconds. Meanwhile, quantum computing promises computing power and security protocols previously thought impossible. Yet speed works both ways. When decisions and transactions become instantaneous, software errors, fraud, and market shocks can spread at the same rapid pace, naturally. AI acts as a double-edged sword: it helps us spot fraud faster, but it also allows attackers to automate larger, more sophisticated cyberattacks. Furthermore, the rise of quantum computing means our traditional security and encryption systems must be upgraded before current defences become obsolete. Our goal should be neither to block innovation out of fear nor to let speed compromise safety. Instead, we must separate wasteful operational friction from essential safeguards—the built-in checks, human oversight, and circuit breakers that protect the system." The Finance Minister called on tech leaders and regulators to build robust guardrails, circuit breakers and continuous human oversight into AI systems and stressed that accountability must remain human.
