Von der Leyen warns of AI agents 'escaping' environments, invites frontier labs to EU talks
In her 2026 State of the Union address, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called AI foundational to the economy and security, warned that models could enable unprecedented hacking and that AI agents 'escaping their environment' are a preview of risks, citing the Hugging Face incident. She said the EU will work with Canada, the UK and other partners on model evaluation, verification and safety, invite major frontier labs to talks, and stressed the AI Act is crucial to put guardrails in place.