Luxembourg was the host city for the 2025 general assembly of Humanists International
Representatives of the global humanist community collectively resolved to pass The Luxembourg Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and Human Values at the 2025 general assembly of Humanists International, held in Luxembourg on Sunday 6 July.
Drafted by Humanists UK with input from leading AI experts and other member organisations of Humanists International, the declaration outlines a set of ten shared ethical principles for the development, deployment, and regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. It calls for AI to be aligned with human rights, democratic oversight, and the intrinsic dignity of every person, and for urgent action from governments and international bodies to make sure that AI serves as a tool for human flourishing, not harm.
Humanists UK patrons Professor Kate Devlin and Dr Emma Byrne were among the experts who consulted on an early draft of the declaration, prior to amendments from member organisations. Professor Devlin is Humanists UK’s commissioner to the UK’s AI Faith & Civil Society Commission.
Defining the values of our AI future
Introducing the motion on the floor of the general assembly, Humanists UK Director of Communications and Development Liam Whitton urged humanists to recognise that the AI revolution was not a distant prospect on the horizon but already upon us. He argued that it fell to governments, international institutions, and ultimately civil society to define the values against which AI models should be trained, and the standards by which AI products and companies ought to be regulated.
Uniquely, humanists bring to the global conversation a principled secular ethics grounded in evidence, compassion, and human dignity. As governments and institutions grapple with the challenge of ‘AI alignment’ – ensuring that artificial intelligence reflects and respects human values – humanists offer a hopeful vision, rooted in a long tradition of thought about human happiness, moral progress, and the common good.
Read the Luxembourg Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and Human Values:
Adopted by the Humanists International General Assembly, Luxembourg, 2025.
In the face of artificial intelligence’s rapid advancement, we stand at a unique moment in human history. While new technologies offer unprecedented potential to enhance human flourishing, handled carelessly they also pose profound risks to human freedoms, human security, and our collective future.
AI systems already pervade innumerable aspects of human life and are developing far more rapidly than current ethical frameworks and governance structures can adapt. At the same time, the rapid concentration of these powerful capabilities within a small number of hands threatens to issue new challenges to civil liberties, democracies, and our vision of a more just and equal world.
In response to these historic challenges, the global humanist community affirms the following principles on the need to align artificial intelligence with human values rooted in reason, evidence, and our shared humanity:
Human judgment: AI systems have the potential to empower and assist individuals and societies to achieve more in all aspects of human life. But they must never displace human judgment, human reason, human ethics, or human responsibility for our actions. Decisions that deeply affect people’s lives must always remain in human hands.
Common good: Fundamentally, states must recognise that AI should be a tool to serve humanity rather than enrich a privileged few. The benefits of technological advancement should flow widely throughout society rather than concentrate power and wealth in ever-fewer hands.
Democratic governance: New technologies must be democratically accountable at all levels – from local communities and small private enterprises through to large multinationals and countries. No corporation, nation, or special interest should wield unaccountable power through technologies with potential to affect every sphere of human activity. Lawmakers, regulators, and public bodies must develop and sustain the expertise to keep pace with AI’s evolution and respond to emerging challenges.
Transparency and autonomy: Citizens cannot meaningfully participate in democracies if the decisions affecting their lives are opaque. Transparency must be embedded not only in laws and regulations, but in the design of AI systems themselves — designed responsibly, with clear intent and purpose, and full human accountability. Laws should guarantee that every individual can freely decide how their personal data is used, and grant all citizens the means to query, contest, and shape how technologies are deployed.
Protection from harm: Protecting people from harm must be a foundational principle of all AI systems, not an afterthought. As AI risks amplifying existing injustices in society – including racism, sexism, homophobia, and ableism – states and developers must act to prevent its use in discrimination, manipulation, unjust surveillance, targeted violence, or the suppression of lawful speech. Governments and business leaders must commit to long-term AI safety research and monitoring, aligning future AI systems with human goals, desires, and needs.
Shared prosperity: Previous industrial revolutions pursued progress without sufficient regard for human suffering. Today we must not. Technological advancement cannot be allowed to erode human dignity or entrench social divides. A truly human-centric approach demands bold investment in training, education, and social protections to enhance jobs, protect human dignity, and support those workers and communities most affected.
Creators and artists: Properly harnessed, AI can help more people enjoy the benefits of creativity — expressing themselves, experimenting with new ideas, and collaborating in ways that bring personal meaning and joy. But we must continue to recognise and protect the unique value that human artists bring to creative work. Intellectual property frameworks must guarantee fair compensation, attribution, and protection for human artists and creators.
Reason, truth, and integrity: Human freedom and progress depend on our ability to distinguish truth from falsehood and fact from fiction. As AI systems introduce new and far-reaching risks to the integrity of information, legal frameworks must rise to protect free inquiry, freedom of expression, and the health of democracy itself from the growing threat of misinformation, disinformation, and deliberate deception at scale.
Future generations: The choices we make about AI today will shape the world for generations to come. Governments, civil society, and technology leaders must remain vigilant and act with foresight – prioritising the mitigation of environmental harms and long-term risks to human survival. These decisions must be guided by our responsibilities not only to one another, but to future generations, the ecosystem we rely on, and the wider animal kingdom.
Human freedom, human flourishing: The ultimate value of AI will lie in its contribution to human happiness. To that end, we should embed shared values that promote human flourishing into AI systems — and be ambitious in using AI to maximise human freedom. For individuals, this could mean more time at leisure, pursuing passion projects, learning, reflecting, and making richer connections with other human beings. Collectively, we should realise these benefits by making advances in science and medicine, resolving pressing global challenges, and addressing inequalities within our societies.
We commit ourselves as humanist organisations and as individuals to advocating these same principles in the governance, ethics, and deployment of AI worldwide.
We affirm the importance of humanist values to navigating these new frontiers – only by prioritising reason, compassion, dignity, freedom, and our shared humanity can human societies adequately navigate these emerging challenges.
We call upon governments, corporations, civil society, and individuals to adopt these same principles through concrete policies, practices, and international agreements, taking this opportunity to renew our commitments to human rights, human dignity, and human flourishing now and always.
For further comment or information, media should contact Humanists UK Director of Public Affairs and Policy Richy Thompson at press@humanists.uk or phone 0203 675 0959.
Humanists UK is the national charity working on behalf of non-religious people. Powered by over 150,000 members and supporters, we advance free thinking and promote humanism to create a tolerant society where rational thinking and kindness prevail. We provide ceremonies, pastoral care, education, and support services benefitting over a million people every year and our campaigns advance humanist thinking on ethical issues, human rights, and equal treatment for all.
Palantir, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) software company, is emerging as a major U.S. stock favored by Koreans. [Photo source = Yonhap News]
Palantir, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) software company, is emerging as a major U.S. stock favored by Koreans.
According to the Korea Securities Depository on the 13th, the value of Palantir shares (storage) held by domestic investors reached $5.85 billion (8.1329 trillion won) as of the 10th, making it the third-largest foreign stock after Tesla and Nvidia.
At the beginning of this year, Palantir ranked eighth in storage, but it jumped five spots in just nine months. Storage increased by about 2.5 times from $2.3 billion.
Palantir is a company that sells advanced AI services to the military, government, companies, and intelligence agencies. The main goal is to help AI analyze vast and diverse data within the organization to find specific patterns and predict the future to make wise decisions.
In Korea, companies such as HD Hyundai Infracore and Samyang Foods use Palantir systems.
Palantir signed a contract with the U.S. Army last month worth up to $10 billion (W13.8 trillion) over the next decade, making it one of the largest Pentagon software contracts in U.S. history.
Palantir’s stock price more than doubled from 75.63 dollars (105,000 won) at the end of last year to 164 dollars (227,000 won) as of the 12th.
In the second quarter of this year, it exceeded $1 billion in sales for the first time ever and posted a net profit of $0.16 per share.
Big tech is expected to spend nearly $500 billion on artificial intelligence infrastructure next year.
Over the past few years, many corporate budgets have been reoriented toward artificial intelligence (AI) investments. Nowhere is this shift more evident than among the cloud hyperscalers — Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon — as well as other tech titans like Meta Platforms and Oracle.
At the center of this unprecedented wave of AI infrastructure spending stands one clear beneficiary: Nvidia(NVDA 0.43%). Whether directly or indirectly, the graphics processing unit (GPU) powerhouse is capturing a significant chunk of the money being spent on AI infrastructure.
Let’s explore how big tech is reshaping the AI landscape — and why these secular tailwinds point to further significant upside for Nvidia.
AI infrastructure spending has accelerated since the launch of ChatGPT
The launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 ignited an unprecedented AI arms race among the world’s largest companies. What’s important to recognize is that their capital expenditures in this battle are not plateauing — they’re accelerating.
Data from Goldman Sachs underscores just how dramatic these dynamics have become. In 2021, Alphabet, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft collectively had capex of about $100 billion. By next year, Wall Street expects that figure to approach nearly $500 billion.
What does this mean for Nvidia?
Training and deploying large language models (LLMs) and building generative AI applications demands extraordinary amounts of computing power. GPUs are parallel processors, which makes them some of the best chips available to provide the type of computing power AI workloads require. Today, Nvidia commands a more than 90% share of the GPU market, giving it a dominant position within the AI supply chain.
A significant portion of the AI capex surge is flowing directly into GPUs and the supporting data center equipment necessary to maximize their performance.
This dynamic places Nvidia in a uniquely enviable position as the backbone of modern AI development — and it’s poised to capture incremental budget allocations as hyperscalers and other data center operators race to secure its next-generation chips the moment they become available.
Image source: Getty Images.
Is Nvidia stock a buy?
The magnitude of hyperscaler infrastructure investment reflects more than the world’s apparently insatiable appetite for AI computing power. It underscores a deeper reality: AI is becoming the central growth engine for these companies, and securing access to the most advanced chips has shifted from being a matter of technological advantage to being a matter of competitive survival.
The accelerating pace of this spending suggests that corporations are still in the early stages of implementing their AI playbooks. Far from being a speculative bubble, this wave of infrastructure investment is the result of deliberate, long-term strategic planning by some of the world’s most influential companies as they pivot away from their traditional priorities and take on sophisticated projects in robotics, autonomous systems, cybersecurity, and more.
For Nvidia, this dynamic should translate into sustained pricing power for its wares, durable recurring demand, and a multiyear runway for rapid growth. Its GPUs and CUDA software platform have become the gold standard for enterprise AI tech stacks.
Taken together, these tailwinds suggest that Nvidia could experience meaningful valuation expansion from here. As the infrastructure chapter of the AI narrative continues to unfold, Nvidia appears well positioned to remain as a core enabler of big tech’s transformation.
For these reasons, I see Nvidia stock as a no-brainer investment, and view it as one of the most compelling buy-and-hold opportunities in the market.
Adam Spatacco has positions in Alphabet, Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Goldman Sachs Group, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Oracle. The Motley Fool recommends Nebius Group and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
north of Fargo, readers have asked several questions about the facility.
The Forum spoke this week with Applied Digital Chairman and CEO Wes Cummins about the 280-megawatt facility planned for east of Interstate 29 between Harwood, North Dakota, and Fargo. The 160-acre center will sit on 925 acres near the Fargo Park District’s North Softball Complex.
The Harwood City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday, Sept. 10, to rezone the land for the center from agricultural to light industrial. With the vote also came final approval of the building permit for the center, meaning Applied Digital can break ground on the facility this month.
“We’re grateful for the City of Harwood’s support and look forward to continuing a strong partnership with the community as this project moves ahead,” Cummins said after the vote.
Applied Digital CEO and Chairman Wes Cummins talks about his company and its plans for Harwood, North Dakota, during a meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025, at the Harwood Community Center.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
Applied Digital plans to start construction this month and open partially by the end of 2026. The facility should be fully operational by early 2027, the company said.
The project should create 700 construction jobs while the facility is built, Applied Digital said. The center will need more than 200 full-time employees to operate, the company said. The facility is expected to generate tax revenue and economic growth for the area, but those estimates have not been disclosed.
Here are some questions readers had about the facility.
What will the AI data center be used for?
Applied Digital said it develops facilities that provide “high-performance data centers and colocations solutions for artificial intelligence, cloud, networking, and blockchain industries.” AI is used to run applications that make computers functional, Cummins said.
“ChatGPT runs in a facility like this,” he said. “There’s just enormous amounts of servers that can run GPUs (graphic processing units) inside of the facility and can either be doing training, which is making the product, or inference, which is what happens when people use the product.”
Applied Digital’s $3 billion data center will be constructed just southeast of the town of Harwood, North Dakota.
Map by The Forum
Applied Digital hasn’t announced what tenants would use Polaris Forge 2, the name for the Harwood facility. At a Harwood City Council meeting, Cummins said the company markets to companies in the U.S. like Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft.
“The demand for AI capacity continues to accelerate, and North Dakota continues to be one of the most strategic locations in the country to meet that need,” he said. “We have strong interest from multiple parties and are in advanced negotiations with a U.S. based investment-grade hyperscaler for this campus, making it both timely and prudent to proceed with groundbreaking and site development.”
AI data centers need significant amounts of electricity to operate, Cummins said. Other centers have traditionally been built near heavily populated areas, but that isn’t necessary, he said.
North Dakota produces enough energy to export it out of state, Cummins said. The Fargo area also has the electrical grid in place to connect to that energy, he said.
“A lot of North Dakotans, especially the leaders of North Dakota, want to better utilize the energy produced by North Dakota for economic benefit inside of the state versus exporting it to neighboring states or to Canada,” he said.
North Dakota’s cold climate much of the year also will keep the center cooler than in states like Texas, meaning the facility will use significantly less power than in warmer states, Cummins said.
“We get much more efficiency out of the facility,” he said. “Those aspects make North Dakota, in my opinion, an ideal place for this type of AI infrastructure.”
The Harwood, North Dakota, elevator on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025, looms behind the land designated for the construction of Applied Digital’s 280-megawatt data center.
David Samson / The Forum
How much water will the center use?
Cummins acknowledged other AI data centers around the world use millions of gallons of water a day. Applied Digital designed a closed-loop system so the North Dakota centers use as little water as possible, Cummins said.
He compared the cooling system to a car radiator. The centers will use glycol liquid to run through the facilities and servers, Cummins said. After cooling the equipment, the liquid goes through chillers, much like a heat pump outside of a house. Once cooled, the liquid will recirculate on a continuous loop, he said.
People who operate the facility will use water for bathroom breaks and drinking, much like a person in a house or a car, he said.
“The data center, even with the immense size, we expect it to use the same amount of water as roughly a single household,” he said. “The reason is the people inside.”
Duncan Alexander and dog Valka protest a proposed AI data center before a Planning and Zoning meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025, in Harwood, North Dakota.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
Will the AI center increase electricity rates?
Applied Digital claims that electricity rates will not go up for local residents because of the data center.
“Data centers pay a large share of fixed utility costs, which helps spread expenses across more users,” the company said.
Applied Digital’s center in Ellendale, North Dakota, much like the one to be built in Harwood, uses power produced in the state, Cummins said. The Ellendale center, which runs on about 200 megawatts a year, saved ratepayers $5.3 million in 2023 and $5.7 million last year, he said.
“Utilizing the infrastructure more efficiently can actually drive rates down,” Cummins said, adding he expects rate savings for Harwood as well.
How much noise will the center make?
Applied Digital’s concrete walls should content the noise from computers, Cummins said. What residents will hear is fan noise from heat pumps used to cool the facility, he said.
“It will sound like the one that runs outside of your house,” he said in describing that the facility will create minimal noise.
The loudest noise will be construction of the facility, Cummins said.
The facility only will cover 160 acres, but Applied Digital is buying 925 acres of land, with the rest of the space serving as a sound buffer, he said. People who live nearby may hear some sound, he acknowledged.
“If you’re a half mile or more from the facility, you will very unlikely hear anything,” he said.
About 300 people showed up to a town hall meeting on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, at the Harwood Community Center to listen and to discuss a new AI data center that is planned to be built in Harwood, North Dakota.
Chris Flynn / The Forum
Has Applied Digital conducted an environmental study?
The facility won’t create emissions or other hazards that would require an environmental impact study, Cummins said.
Why move so fast to approve the facility?
Some have criticized Applied Digital and the Harwood City Council for pushing the approval process so quickly. Applied Digital announced the project in mid-August, and the city approved it in less than a month.
Cummins acknowledged that concern but noted the industry is moving fast. The U.S. is competing with China to create artificial intelligence, an industry that is not going away, Cummins said.
“I do believe we are in a race in the world for super intelligence,” he said. “It’s a race amongst companies in the U.S., but it’s also a race against other countries. … I do think it’s very important the U.S. win this AI race to super intelligence and then to artificial general intelligence.”
Applied Digital said it wanted to finish foundation and grading work on the project before winter sets in, meaning it needed an expedited approval timeline.
People in Harwood have shown overwhelming support, Cummins said, adding that protesters mostly came from other cities.
“I can’t think of a project that would spend this amount of money and have this kind of economic benefit for a community and a county and a state and have this low of a negative impact,” he said. “I think these types of projects are fantastic for these types of communities.”
