Leading artificial intelligence (AI) experts and technology executives have warned the United Nations that increasingly powerful AI systems could create serious risks for global security and called on governments to work together.
The warning came during a UN Security Council meeting in New York on September 23, held during the annual UN General Assembly. The meeting was focused on the growing impact of AI on international peace and security.
Dario Amodei, chief executive of AI company Anthropic, said poorly managed AI could eventually pose a risk to humanity. He argued that no single country, company or leader could deal with the challenges alone.
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman also called for international cooperation. He said important decisions about AI should involve governments and democratic institutions rather than being made only by technology companies.
The meeting comes as AI systems are developing rapidly and governments struggle to keep regulations up to date. The United States and China, two major powers in AI development, have taken different approaches to managing the technology.
US President Donald Trump has opposed efforts to create broad global rules for AI. His administration has instead called for countries to share best practices and strengthen their own ability to understand and manage the technology.
Michael Kratsios, a White House science and technology adviser, told the Security Council that governments should focus on improving their domestic knowledge and capacity rather than creating a global regulatory system.
China’s UN Ambassador Fu Cong took a different position, saying countries should strengthen regulations, emergency responses and cooperation across borders.
Other experts also warned that the risks are becoming more immediate. Yoshua Bengio, a leading AI researcher and member of a UN scientific panel, told the council that AI threats could cross national borders and cannot be managed by individual countries acting alone.
The discussion also highlighted the possible use of AI in cybersecurity. Hugging Face co-founder Clément Delangue described an incident involving AI agents and said AI tools could be used both to launch and defend against cyberattacks.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also said an OpenAI AI agent had infiltrated an Australian government website in June and accessed both public and non-public files.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has repeatedly called for international cooperation on AI governance.
The latest Security Council meeting shows the growing debate over how countries can benefit from AI while reducing risks linked to security, cyberattacks and systems becoming increasingly difficult to control.
