Mr Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, has advocated the building of guardrails to save humanity from the dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
He offered the counsel on Thursday in a paper delivered at the 7th World Media Summit in Beijing, China, a copy of which was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) in Abuja.
His paper focused on “AI and the Future of Global Communication Governance”.
Onanuga, while praising the impact of the AI revolution on all aspects of life, pointed out, however, that even the scientists driving it were equally worried as it “appears to be overtaking human intelligence”.
“They (scientists) are equally pushing for necessary guardrails to curb its misuse and overuse,” he said.
According to him, the scientists have explained that laboratory developments in the AI revolution are signalling existential dangers to humanity.
Onanuga observed that AI images had become powerful tools for electoral contests as political actors and their supporters seek to confuse and mislead unsuspecting Nigerians ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He regretted that politicians and their supporters were deploying fake AI images to spread lots of falsehoods.
“Some use it satirically for entertainment, some highlight candidates’ achievements.
“When I saw a video of President Tinubu being chased by an imagined crowd and falling off a cliff to escape them, it felt like a joke taken too far,” he said.
He said that AI was taking over a huge media space in Nigeria with a major national TV station using AI models to read the news in local languages, while a publishing house had launched an AI-driven newsroom.
Social media platforms such as X, Facebook and TikTok are equally awash with AI-generated videos and images, he added.
He equally spoke of huge gains of the AI Revolution.
“Today, AI governs our existence, and we encounter it all the time. In the car, it warns you about your immediate surroundings. It maps your fastest route to your destination,” he said, citing AI’s Leviathan impact on human lives.
“Recently, Radical Numerics, an AI start-up, announced that its scientists used AI-designed viruses to treat a human patient with a deadly bacterial infection.
“If peer review confirms the experiment, it could point to a new way to use AI in medicine, providing individualised treatment that targets even the most resistant bacterial infections.
“Recently, we have also read about AI solving difficult mathematical problems or disproving old theorems.
“I believe we can no longer ignore AI’s penetrating impact, most of it beneficial, unless we want to return to the Stone Age.
“The apps aren’t always right, and sometimes they can mangle your write-up if you submit everything to them,” he, however, observed.
Onanuga declared that the world should not let AI become an ungoverned space, and expressed happiness that steps were already being taken in that respect.
“Individuals and governments are worried. Educational institutions are worried, as students, and even teachers, depend on AI to write term papers and score them.
“From December 2, 2026, the EU will prohibit AI applications that violate human rights or manipulate behaviour.
“China has also restricted exports of sensitive AI technologies to keep them under human and state control, and has deployed proactive measures aggressively to curb deepfakes, cyberbullying and human-AI romantic relationships,” he added.
Onanuga also recalled that the United Nations, in conjunction with the Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence, launched the Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva in July 2026.
“A follow-up meeting is scheduled for May 2027 in New York. The UN is concerned about bridging cross-border policy divides on AI.
“Researchers and industry figures such as Dario Amodei, Anthropic’s chief executive, have called for a global slowdown in artificial intelligence development.
“Amodei has also called for independent auditors to check companies for safety standards and urged global cooperation to create rules around AI development.”
Onanuga equally recalled that Nobel Laureate Prof. Geoffrey Hinton, regarded as the Godfather of AI, has warned that AI could eventually become smarter than humans and create non-human “alien intelligence”.
He quoted Hinton as urging global cooperation to prevent AI from deriving unintended sub-goals such as taking control or causing human extinction.
The presidential aide said that the world must act before it becomes too late by building guardrails quickly to save humanity.
