Executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Hugging Face briefed the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday in New York. The emergency session focused on growing concerns that increasingly powerful artificial intelligence technologies pose existential risks to humanity.
Leaders warned that autonomous systems could soon improve themselves, slip beyond human control, and outpace human oversight, thereby threatening international security. The United Nations secretary general also urged for regulation to prevent a dystopian future characterized by killer robots and rampant corporate power.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for nations to work together on regulations and the implementation of risk evaluation standards. Amodei pledged to slow development to ensure safety, while Altman urged extreme care and argued that companies should temper the pace of AI development to manage potential risks.
In addition to the tech executives, including Hugging Face's Clement Delangue, UN Council members were set to speak. This included leading AI rivals, the United States and China.