Μake us preferred on Google Top executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Hugging Face are set to address the UN Security Council on Wednesday, as concerns grow that increasingly advanced AI systems could soon begin improving themselves, move beyond human oversight, and pose a threat to global security.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Hugging Face co-founder Clément Delangue will speak before the 15-member council during the UN General Assembly‘s annual meeting of world leaders.
According to an OpenAI executive who spoke to reporters on Tuesday, Altman intends to call on world leaders to establish benchmarks for measuring what AI systems can do and for evaluating the safety measures companies adopt while building the technology.
Council members are also expected to speak, including the United States and China, the two main competitors in the AI race. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot will preside over the session.
A European diplomat, who asked not to be named, said the meeting’s primary goal was to draw attention to the concrete dangers of AI escaping control in ways that could affect both international security and the safety of individual countries. The diplomat said these concerns clearly fall under the Security Council’s responsibilities, adding that the central question is whether interacting algorithms could someday spark a war.
Ahead of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington on Thursday, the two countries have discussed creating a notification system for shared goals and threats, which would include AI-related incidents serious enough to affect national security.
Trump: Encourage AI, not restrain it
Speaking at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump said he opposes any effort to build a “globalist scheme” to control AI. He called the technology amazing but said the US would proceed with care.
Trump said the US is far ahead of China and every other country in AI and intends to stay there. He added that he would not hold back the growth of a technology he believes will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution, saying the US will encourage it while monitoring it closely through the Department of Justice.
His stance puts him at odds with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has warned that fast-moving advances in AI carry risks that cannot be overlooked.
Guterres has long advocated for global AI governance. In 2023, he set up a 39-member advisory body for a one-year term, made up of tech executives, government officials, and academics from countries including the US, Russia, and Japan.
Last year, the 193-member UN General Assembly went on to establish the Independent International Scientific Panel. Yoshua Bengio, the Canadian computer scientist widely regarded as one of the “Godfathers of AI” and co-chair of the panel, will also brief the Security Council.
The Security Council first held a meeting on AI risks in 2023. At the time, China cautioned that the technology should not be allowed to become a “runaway horse,” while the US warned against using it to censor or oppress people. Former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken later chaired a council session on AI in 2024.
