Sam Altman Briefs UN Security Council on AI Safety

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is briefing the United Nations Security Council in person on 23 September, bringing the AI industry's safety debate into a forum focused on international peace and security. This marks a historic convergence of AI leadership and international diplomacy, as the anticipated briefers include Yoshua Bengio, Co-Chair of the UN's Independent International Scientific Panel on AI (IISP-AI); OpenAI CEO Sam Altman; Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei; and Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue.

The open meeting, convened by France during the UN General Assembly's annual gathering in New York, will examine the security implications of artificial intelligence, including the risks associated with malicious use and loss of control over increasingly capable AI systems. Tomorrow's meeting will be the Council's first meeting focused specifically on the safety risks posed by increasingly capable AI systems, including the potential loss of human control.

Altman's remarks are expected to centre on international coordination, shared safety standards and measures OpenAI is taking to ensure that the benefits of AI reach people globally, according to an OpenAI spokesperson. France's concept note frames the discussion around malicious uses of AI and the possibility of humans losing control of increasingly capable systems. This is an open briefing, meaning no binding resolutions are expected to come out of it.

The Chinese AI developer has been invited to brief the 15-member UN Security Council on Wednesday, September 23, alongside OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and expected senior representation from Anthropic, according to Reuters. Other Chinese developers, including Moonshot AI, have also been invited to make statements. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for a coordinated international response to the risks posed by AI.