The announcement by the US government and major AI companies to establish voluntary self-regulation and safety controls for the development of the technology represents a “free pass” for the industry, potentially posing risks to public health and democracy in various countries.

This is the assessment of sociologist Sérgio Amadeu, a professor at the Federal University of ABC (UFABC) and the author of works on digital technologies.

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“What Trump did was to completely and irresponsibly hand over democratic control of AI development to the very corporations that develop it. This is a gigantic risk,” Amadeu said.

The agreement, signed Tuesday (Sep. 29) at the White House with OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic, Google, Nvidia, and X (formerly Twitter), includes the implementation of “internal controls” to monitor AI models. The controls are intended to “ensure that their models do not intrude upon or access technical systems in unintended ways.”

“This is already being done. The entire AI training process requires robust oversight, and internal monitoring is already in place. None of this adds anything significant to the regulation and control of the improper use and development of machine learning and deep learning,” Amadeu added.

Regarding the proposal for independent external audits of AI companies, the UFABC professor argues that the audits would be paid for by the companies themselves.

“To what extent will this external auditor, paid by the company itself, offer criticism and suggestions that could cause discontent among the companies’ boards of shareholders?” the professor asked.

Fragile benefits

Ettore Arpini, an AI governance expert and founder of Plures - an organization that supports the training of professionals in the AI field - told Agência Brasil that the voluntary agreement among AI companies could yield real benefits.

However, he warns that the commitment could be abandoned once the safeguards become commercially detrimental.

Arpini cites the example of the Amazon Soy Moratorium, a voluntary agreement involving companies in the sector that committed to refraining from planting soybeans in the Amazon and preventing deforestation of the biome.

“This worked for 20 years on a voluntary basis, until the political and economic environment changed and the participating companies withdrew from the agreement, causing the moratorium to fail. What happens if a company fails an audit or withdraws from the pact?” he asked.

Public health

Sociologist Sérgio Amadeu points out that AI poses environmental risks due to its high energy and water consumption, privacy risks due to its capacity for mass surveillance of populations, as well as risks to democracy and public health.

He explains that various research projects conducted in the pharmaceutical industry in partnership with big tech companies using AI models may pose risks to public health and therefore require government regulation.

“We know that when the use of AI is controlled solely by investors, it poses a huge risk to experiments,” he commented.

Among the risks, the expert cites the possibility that the use of AI could lead people to self-medicate or even use the technology to diagnose themselves.

Social concerns

The Trump administration has refused to impose limits on AI development, despite requests from the industry itself and pressure from civil society in the United States.

An opinion poll conducted by Ipsos and Reuters found that 73 percent of Americans believe AI companies are not taking sufficient measures to prevent the technology from harming society, while 39 percent think that AI is having a negative impact on society.

One of the identified risks is that these systems could make cyberattacks easier to carry out by hacking into the systems of other companies and institutions. Other risks associated with AI include its impact on the labor market and the “malicious” use of the technology by criminals to conduct cyber scams.

Democracy

AI can also be used to influence public opinion by manipulating information circulating on social media, according to the International AI Safety Report 2026, prepared by 100 experts from more than 30 countries.

“Several laboratory studies have shown that interaction with AI systems can lead to measurable changes in people’s beliefs,” the report notes.

Another risk highlighted in the report relates to the development of chemical and biological weapons.

“General-purpose AI systems can provide information on the development of biological and chemical weapons, including details on pathogens and specialized laboratory instructions,” the international report states.

Scientist Denise Pires de Carvalho will assume the position of Deputy Director-General for Science at the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in the coming days. This marks the first time Brazil has held this position since the UN’s founding in 1945.

In making the announcement, UNESCO highlighted the scientist’s experience in leadership and management of research, and in the evaluation of research programs and international scientific cooperation, and stated that her work “has addressed the social dimensions of science, including equitable access, gender equality, and inclusive institutional governance.”

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Currently president of CAPES – the Ministry of Education’s foundation tasked with expanding, regulating, and evaluating master’s and doctoral programs across Brazil – Carvalho states that she arrives at UNESCO with the same perspective that Brazil has held toward science in recent years, emphasizing multilateralism and people-centered science.

“Over the past three years, what Brazil has done – and what CAPES has done – is to promote South-South collaboration at the graduate level and to increasingly internationalize the country’s graduate programs, engaging with Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as with African countries, in addition to all the cooperation we were already undertaking,” she declared.

Carvalho also highlighted the role of science in the development of countries, especially the poorest ones. She argues that there is no way for Brazil to become a developed country other than through science.

“Those who reject science reject the nation’s development. There is no independent country without universities. There is no independent country without science. And Brazil began this process of true independence far too late. All the most developed countries in the world are more developed because they have invested in science,” she said.

UNESCO’s Directorate-General for Science is responsible for promoting international scientific cooperation and implementing UN programs in the areas of Natural Sciences and Social and Human Sciences, including recommendations on the ethics of artificial intelligence.

Recognition of Brazil

The Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Relations celebrated the nomination and expressed confidence that the scientist’s work “will contribute to strengthening the sciences and their role in promoting peace, equity, sustainability, and human development.”

Profile

Denise Pires de Carvalho is a physician with a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), where she is also a full professor in the Department of Biophysics. In 2019, she became the first woman to serve as president of UFRJ.

She also served as secretary of higher education at the Ministry of Education from 2023 to 2024. In February 2024, she assumed the presidency of CAPES. She currently also chairs the Scientific Council of France’s Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) and participates in regional and global academic and scientific cooperation networks.

The Shield of the Americas coalition, led by the US and comprising 14 other Latin American countries, uses the fight against drug cartels as a pretext to interfere in Latin American countries and block China’s economic influence in the region.

The statement comes from experts in Latin American international relations consulted by Agência Brasil, such as Danilo Enrico Martuscelli, a professor of political science at the Federal University of Uberlândia (UFU).

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“The Shield of the Americas is a resumption of the process of attempting colonial or imperial annexation of Latin American countries by the US, driven by a geopolitical logic of commercial and technological competition with China,” he argued.

This week, on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly in New York, the 15 countries in the coalition released a document stating their intention to bring the proposal to combat drug cartels before the Organization of American States (OAS).

In the released document, the nations also agreed to designate 24 drug trafficking groups as “terrorist” organizations, including the Brazilian groups Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho (CV).

Expert Danilo Enrico Martuscelli describes the policy of Donald Trump’s second term as one of “open imperial aggression” and, in questioning the White House’s policy on combating cartels, points out that Trump himself granted a pardon to former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been sentenced to 45 years in prison for facilitating the importation of tons of cocaine into the US.

“Would someone committed to fighting drug trafficking grant a pardon and release a drug trafficker? They want to fight drug trafficking, but in other people’s backyards. Domestically, what are they doing to control this organized crime?” asked Danilo Martuscelli.

Created in March this year, the Shield of the Americas currently includes the US, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Interference in Latin America

Robson Valdez, a professor of international relations at the Brazilian Institute of Education, Development, and Research (IDP), noted that the focus of the Shield of the Americas is the possibility of using drug trafficking to legitimize interference in Latin America.

“And, indirectly, this signals to China that its relations with countries in the region would have to be reassessed from the perspective of US foreign policy,” he remarked.

According to Valdez, the coalition aims “primarily to [legitimize] the physical presence of US troops in the region under the pretext of combating organized crime.”

Brazil

Despite not having been invited to participate in the initiative, the Brazilian government views the Shield of the Americas with caution, while continuing to cooperate internationally with countries in the region to combat organized crime.

From Brasília’s perspective, the initiative could be used by Washington to secure automatic alignment on economic issues, with possible restrictions on China’s presence in Latin America.

In announcing the coalition, the Trump administration stated that the initiative aims not only to combat drug trafficking but also to “keep external threats at bay, including malign foreign influences from outside the Western Hemisphere.”

The Shield at the OAS

In the joint document published this week, the group states it intends to submit a proposal to the OAS for joint action by member countries in the fight against drug trafficking.

Once the formal meeting of the OAS consultative body is scheduled, the nations say they “intend to participate at the ministerial level to consider adopting a resolution promoting and facilitating collective action against narco-terrorist organizations under the Rio Treaty [TIAR, Inter-American Treaty on Reciprocal Assistance].”

Signed in 1947, during the Cold War, the TIAR stipulates that “an act of aggression against one American state constitutes an act of aggression against all other American states.”

Professor Danilo Martuscelli notes that, by bringing the issue to the OAS, the US-led group is attempting to pressure countries that have not yet endorsed the proposal – such as Brazil, Mexico, Uruguay, and Canada.

“The appeal to the OAS is intended to lend some institutional legitimacy to this policy of open imperial pressure,” he said.

The Brazilian government is awaiting the presentation of the Shield of the Americas proposal to the OAS to determine whether it will support or reject a potential resolution by the international organization on the matter.

Drugs and the economy

The coalition’s document released in New York combines the fight against drugs with measures for “economic cooperation” among countries, including the protection of “supply chains for critical minerals through diversified and reliable sources.”

Critical minerals, which are key supplies in the technology, defense, and energy transition industries, are one of the focal points of the trade and technology dispute between Washington and Beijing.

“[We defend our economies] by promoting regulations on trusted suppliers for digital infrastructure, applied in a non-discriminatory manner,” the joint document adds.

Professor Valdez added that the Shield of the Americas could be used to mandate the sale of US military equipment, “which strips countries of their autonomy to choose their partners for arms purchases.”

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva once again defended countries’ sovereignty, specifically citing the situations in Latin America and Brazil, where, he stated, attempts have been made to exert foreign influence over national political processes.

He said that the problems facing Latin America and the Caribbean stem from the region’s proximity to major powers.

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“In Latin America and the Caribbean, geographical proximity to the world’s greatest military power is inescapable, especially in the context of resurgent hegemonic ambitions. Brazil wouldn’t fit in anyone’s backyard,” he said during a speech at the opening ceremony of the 81st UN General Assembly on Tuesday (Sep. 22) in New York.

“We are once again witnessing foreign interference in electoral processes. The division of the world into spheres of influence and neocolonial encroachments on strategic resources are anachronistic acts,” he noted, citing recent events in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Haiti, and Cuba.

The region, he went on to declare, has come a long way toward consolidating democratic regimes following periods of dictatorship and authoritarianism. In this context, he advocated for greater regional integration and respect for the self-determination of peoples.

“We need partners with a positive agenda that fosters development. Ideological differences should not be an obstacle to greater integration among neighbors. The countries of the region have recognized the horrors of authoritarian regimes. We have come a long way toward restoring the will of the people,” he stated.

Democracy under threat

President Lula also warned of what he described as a resurgence of practices incompatible with the contemporary international order. “Democracy is once again under threat,” he said.

When mentioning countries in the Americas, the president stated that each nation must chart its own course. In his view, the Venezuelan people must decide their own fate without external interference, while Nicaragua will not solve its problems by preventing the opposition from participating in elections.

He also mentioned the humanitarian crisis in Haiti and once again criticized the economic embargo imposed on Cuba.

Networks of disinformation

The Brazilian leader also mentioned the influence of disinformation networks during election campaigns and stated that the Brazilian government will be vigilant against possible attempts at interference.

“We do not underestimate the challenge posed by disinformation networks that seek to distort public debate during the campaign,” he declared.

He then emphasized his confidence in the country’s institutions and electoral system. “We will not allow the enemies of democracy, whether internal or external, to undermine the will of the people. Brazil will remain a sovereign nation. No one will divert us from this path,” he declared.

Denialism

Lula also highlighted the dangers of fake news, especially regarding scientific findings on issues such as health and the environment. “In the age of disinformation, obscurantists resist scientific evidence,” he said, while advocating for the fight against denialism.

“We will never forget the millions of lives lost due to the failure to adequately address COVID-19. Anti-vaccine campaigns are bringing back diseases we thought had been eradicated. Weakening the World Health Organization makes everyone more vulnerable.”

“Until recently, the response to climate change was firmly established at the center of the international agenda. This year, the issue has disappeared from the debates at the G7 and G20 – forums that bring together the world’s largest carbon emitters. It is time to go back on the offensive and defeat denialism.”

Public safety

When addressing public safety, Lula rejected the involvement of foreign forces in combating organized crime on national territory and advocated for international cooperation in specific areas, such as combating arms trafficking and money laundering.

“We will not transfer the responsibility for defending our borders and guaranteeing the people the right to live without fear,” he stated.

The president added that the fight against crime must be carried out through cooperation among governments, not through external military actions. “We don’t need aircraft carriers patrolling our waters; we need cooperation to stem the flow of weapons and money that fuels organized crime.”

According to Lula, Brazil has presented the US with a proposal for cooperation to combat money laundering carried out by Brazilian criminals abroad.

The president also stated that Brazil has been strengthening coordination among the states and expanding efforts to combat criminal organizations.