Some of the most powerful people in America assembled in Washington, DC, today to help shape the future of artificial intelligence (AI) safeguards. The unprecedented meeting took place as the US Senate gears up to draft legislation that will regulate the rapidly advancing AI industry, which many of the world's best minds fear could destroy humanity if left unchecked. The gathering brought 22 of the most influential voices in the tech sector - who had a combined net worth of over $400billion - and 100 senators under one roof, bridging the gap between Silicon Valley and the nation's capital. The high-profile event included notorious AI critic Elon Musk, who today called for tighter regulation of AI, as well as Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and the CEOs of Google and IBM. The private meeting was a crash course for legislators on how best to regulate AI: a technical achievement which some of these same industry leaders likened to the'extinction'-level risk of nuclear weapons.

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., weighs in on whether Ukraine should be given NATO membership and President Biden's decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine on'Your World.' EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told a group of tech leaders, union leaders and artificial intelligence experts on Wednesday that AI's rapid advancement has inspired calls for "a new Manhattan-like project" and how the government should regulate AI -- if at all -- is still a matter of debate. Rounds, along with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, is leading the first in a series of bipartisan AI Insight Forums designed to help lawmakers get ahead of AI as it permeates everyday life. Wednesday's session saw the attendance of Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, X owner Elon Musk, AFL-CIO union boss Elizabeth Shuler and others. "Today, we stand at the beginning of a journey of monumental change. While Artificial Intelligence has been around in various forms for years, recent advances in the most cutting-edge models have shown us just how capable the technology has become," Rounds told the closed-door meeting, according to prepared comments obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital.