An independent group of former heads of state, senior officials, and public figures, founded by Nelson Mandela in 2007 to work on peace, justice, and human rights. Chaired by Juan Manuel Santos, former President of Colombia and a Nobel Peace laureate.
AI positions
The Elders treat AI within an existential-risk frame alongside nuclear weapons and climate — a framing that predates the organisation's AI work and shapes how it approaches the subject. Its members are not technical researchers; the group's contribution is to lend the standing of former heads of state to positions that would otherwise sit within the AI-safety community.
Santos and fellow member Denis Mukwege signed "Humanity at the Threshold", the declaration adopted at the Global Nobel Laureates Assembly at the Vatican in July 2026. Its provisions include a call for a treaty prohibiting reckless integration of AI into nuclear command and control, a bar on fully automated recursive self-improvement absent means to monitor and halt it, developer liability for published model principles, and a coordinated slowdown of frontier development through shared verification mechanisms. The Elders' site carries the text and Santos's accompanying remarks on ensuring "that technology is developed and governed in the interests of humanity."
The organisation also publishes ProHuman: Governing the Global AI Revolution, an eight-part podcast series with members and guests on international AI governance.
Relationships
- related: Humanity at the Threshold: A Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear Weapons (Vatican, July 2026) — signatory organisation, and the mirror from which the declaration text is available
- related: Religious and Civil-Society Voices on AI, AI Existential Risk, Frontier AI Governance