Senior executives from OpenAI, Anthropic and Hugging Face are set to brief the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday as governments confront growing concerns over the international security risks posed by increasingly powerful artificial intelligence.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Hugging Face co-founder Clément Delangue are expected to address the 15-member council during the annual UN General Assembly gathering of world leaders. Yoshua Bengio, co-chair of the UN’s Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, is also scheduled to participate.
The meeting comes amid warnings that increasingly advanced AI systems could eventually develop capabilities that make them harder for humans to monitor or control. OpenAI is expected to call for international benchmarks to measure AI capabilities and evaluate the safeguards deployed by companies developing increasingly advanced systems.
The discussions will also focus on the potential consequences of AI systems interacting with one another in ways that could affect national and international security. A European diplomat, speaking anonymously, said the Security Council needs to examine the possibility of autonomous algorithms contributing to serious security incidents, including scenarios that could potentially escalate into conflict.
US and China Discuss AI Incident Notifications
The meeting comes shortly before a planned meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington. The United States and China have discussed establishing a notification mechanism covering AI-related incidents that could rise to the level of national security threats.
The discussions reflect growing efforts by major powers to establish channels for communication around emerging AI risks, even as Washington and Beijing compete for technological leadership.
Trump has taken a more development-focused approach to AI governance. Addressing world leaders at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, he said the United States would encourage AI development rather than impose restrictions that could slow its growth.
Trump said the United States was leading China and other countries in AI and argued that the technology could ultimately have an impact greater than the Industrial Revolution. He also said Washington would closely monitor developments through the Department of Justice.
UN Pushes for Greater Global AI Governance
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has repeatedly warned that the rapid development of AI presents risks that require international cooperation. His position has contrasted with Trump’s emphasis on encouraging technological growth.
In 2023, Guterres established a 39-member advisory body on AI that brought together technology executives, government officials and academics from countries including the United States, Russia and Japan.
The UN General Assembly subsequently established the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, which is examining the development and potential risks of advanced artificial intelligence. Bengio, one of the researchers often associated with the early development of modern AI, serves as a co-chair of the panel.
The Security Council first held a dedicated discussion on AI-related risks in 2023. At the time, China warned that AI should not become a “runaway horse,” while the United States highlighted concerns about the technology being used for censorship and repression.
The council held another high-level discussion on AI in 2024, chaired by then-U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Wednesday’s meeting marks another step in the UN’s efforts to bring governments, scientists and technology companies into discussions about how increasingly capable AI systems should be developed, monitored and governed as their potential impact on global security continues to grow.
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