OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during a UN Security Council meeting on artificial intelligence during the 81st United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, on September 23, 2026 - AFP

 

AI Leaders Warn UN of Security Risks as Systems Grow More Powerful

Executives from three of the world's leading artificial intelligence companies briefed the UN Security Council on Wednesday amid warnings that increasingly powerful AI systems could soon improve themselves, slip beyond human control, and pose a ‌threat to international security.

Among those addressing the 15-member council during the annual General Assembly gathering were OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and Hugging Face co-founder Clément Delangue, three of the industry's most prominent executives.

"If managed poorly, I even believe that AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole," Anthropic's Amodei told the Security Council.

Governments have grappled with how to oversee AI systems that are advancing faster than regulators can keep up while the United States and China — the two dominant players in AI development — remain divided over whether the technology needs global guardrails or ⁠should be left largely to market forces.

“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. "At the international level, this will require cooperation."

"In our history, there have been times when countries who compete and don’t always like each other very much still come together for shared interests and the collective good in the face of a powerful new technology. We believe this must be one of those times," he said.

Yoshua Bengio, a Canadian considered one of the "Godfathers of AI" and co-chair of the Independent International Scientific Panel — created by the UN General Assembly last year — told the Security Council: "The dangers are real and imminent."

"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," he said.

Council members, including leading AI rivals, the United States and China, were also set to speak. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot chaired the meeting. – Reuters