AI leaders warn UN council of security risks

Executives and experts warned the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday that increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems could create international security risks without effective oversight, The Korea Times reported.

The briefing put AI governance before the 15-member council during the annual U.N. General Assembly gathering, as governments debate how to manage fast-moving systems that could affect national security.

The Korea Times reported that executives from OpenAI, Anthropic and Hugging Face addressed the Security Council, along with AI researchers and council members. The session focused on whether advanced systems could improve themselves, evade human control or be used in ways that threaten security.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told the Security Council, "If managed poorly, I even believe that AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole," according to The Korea Times. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said decisions about powerful AI should not be left only to private developers.

"If AI is to be democratic, the most important decisions cannot be made by labs in San Francisco alone. They must be shaped through democratic processes and by governments accountable to the people they serve," Altman told the council, according to The Korea Times. He added, "At the international level, this will require cooperation."

Yoshua Bengio, co-chair of the Independent International Scientific Panel, told the Security Council, "The dangers are real and imminent." Bengio also said, "This council faces an unprecedented threat, one that none of its members would choose, that none can contain alone, and that does not respect the borders we defend," The Korea Times reported.

The Korea Times reported that the United States and China have discussed a notification system for AI-related incidents that reach a national security level. The Security Council first met on AI risks in 2023, and then-U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken chaired a council meeting on AI in 2024.

U.S. President Donald Trump told the U.N. General Assembly that he rejects a global framework to control AI and said, "I'm not going to stifle growth of something that will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution."