In an interview with EFE, Mario Hernández, president of the Council of Europe's Committee on New and Emerging Digital Technologies, stated plainly: the apocalyptic statements by the heads of OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI are not sincere warnings but a strategy to influence regulators.
What is at stake is an attempt to steer European legislation in a direction advantageous to large corporations, not the protection of humanity. Hernández emphasizes: those with enormous economic interests must not be allowed to monopolize the narrative about artificial intelligence.
A professor of constitutional law at the Complutense University of Madrid and head of the committee since April 2026, Hernández has consistently advocated for strict legal and ethical frameworks. His position rests on the first internationally legally binding treaty — the Council of Europe Framework Convention on AI, already ratified by the EU.
Unlike the approaches in the US or China, the European line emphasizes human rights, democratic control and human oversight. Hernández sees AI as a "multiplier" of other technologies — from medicine to quantum computing — but insists that without strict regulation it could lead to "digital anarchy."
His statements confirm the Council of Europe's long-standing line: the priority of democratic values and human rights over purely commercial interests. This is not merely a reaction to an interview but a continuation of work on tools for assessing AI's impact on human rights, which the committee already offers to companies and states.
While other countries discuss joining the convention, Europe continues to develop its own mechanisms. Hernández's position shows that the real struggle is not over banning technologies but over who exactly will determine the rules for their use.
