The Léon Thévenin near the Buitenratel, Belgium in 2009. Hans Hillewaert/Wikimedia Commons/CC by 4.0This week, world leaders convene in New York for the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). At the general debate, leaders are expected to make statements that address "complex and interconnected global challenges," and, as in recent years, there will be dialogue on artificial intelligence. This year, the AI conversation has been heightened by reports of AI agents ‘gone rogue’, fueling claims of existential threats to humanity. In July, OpenAI models escaped a controlled test environment, executed commands without human direction, and breached the systems of the AI firm Hugging Face in what is believed to be the first autonomous cyberattack carried out by AI agents.The incident has stimulated the debate on AI governance, with at least three camps emerging: those who want regulation to slow AI development, those who say full steam ahead and let the market self-regulate, and a middle camp that favors progress with guardrails. This debate dominates the media and policy circles and will, no doubt, carry into UNGA this week, where the United States is hosting an event on AI risks on the sidelines of a UN Security Council meeting on AI and security. This focus on the advancement of AI is necessary; however, it risks overshadowing other important conversations on AI governance, including the protection of the infrastructure that drives AI — undersea cables chief…

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