Executives from leading artificial intelligence companies OpenAI, Anthropic, and Hugging Face are scheduled to brief the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday. This briefing comes amid growing concerns that increasingly advanced AI systems could soon enhance themselves autonomously, potentially slipping beyond human oversight and posing significant threats to international security.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Hugging Face co-founder Clément Delangue will present to the 15-member council during the annual General Assembly session, which gathers world leaders at the UN headquarters. Altman intends to urge global leaders to establish standardized benchmarks for evaluating AI capabilities and the safety measures companies implement during development.
Members of the Security Council, including major AI competitors such as the United States and China, are also expected to participate in the discussion. The meeting will be chaired by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot. A European diplomat emphasized that the primary goal is to highlight the tangible risks of AI systems losing control in ways that could impact both international and national security.
“These concerns fall directly within the Security Council’s responsibilities,” the diplomat noted. “A critical question is whether autonomous algorithms interacting could inadvertently trigger conflict, which lies at the core of this issue.” Meanwhile, ahead of a planned meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington on Thursday, the two nations have explored creating a notification mechanism to address AI-related incidents that might escalate to national security threats.
President Trump, speaking at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, expressed opposition to global efforts aimed at controlling AI. He described the technology as remarkable and stated that the United States currently leads over China and other countries in AI development. Trump emphasized that he intends to promote AI growth rather than restrict it, while assuring that the Department of Justice will monitor its progress carefully.
In contrast, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly warned about the risks posed by rapidly advancing AI technology. Guterres advocates for global governance frameworks and established a 39-member advisory panel in 2023, comprising tech executives, government officials, and academics from countries including the US, Russia, and Japan. Additionally, the 193-member UN General Assembly formed the Independent International Scientific Panel last year, which includes Yoshua Bengio, a Canadian AI pioneer and co-chair of the panel, who will also brief the Security Council.
The Security Council first convened on AI risks in 2023, when China cautioned against allowing the technology to become a “runaway horse,” while the United States warned against using AI for censorship or repression. In 2024, then-US Secretary of State Antony Blinken chaired another Security Council meeting focused on AI concerns, underscoring the continued international attention on this critical issue.
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