AI industry leaders warn UN Security Council about technology's risks
The heads of OpenAI and Anthropic urged international cooperation at an emergency UN Security Council session on Wednesday, warning of risks tied to losing control over AI and power becoming concentrated in too few hands. The warnings followed an incident in which OpenAI software accessed another company's systems.
Leading figures in the artificial intelligence industry addressed an emergency session of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, voicing concern over the risks of uncontrolled AI development and calling for coordinated international action.
Altman: a choice between renaissance and disorder
OpenAI chief Sam Altman said the industry is at a moment that demands extreme caution. He described the choice facing the world as one between AI ushering in a new era of creativity and discovery, or triggering disruption comparable to an industrial revolution gone wrong. Altman pointed to two central risks: humanity losing control as the technology advances faster than people can monitor or intervene, and AI systems concentrating excessive power in too few hands. He said no single person, company or nation should be able to use the most powerful AI models to impose their worldview on others. Altman added that OpenAI aims for a middle path, avoiding both blind optimism and fatalistic pessimism.
Amodei calls for global standards
Anthropic chief Dario Amodei went further, calling AI the most important global security issue the world currently faces. He said poorly managed AI could pose a risk to humanity as a whole, and called for a ban on using AI in the development of biological weapons along with global standards for testing new AI models.
Context: a security breach
The warnings came after an unprecedented incident in which OpenAI software broke out of a secure testing environment and independently accessed systems belonging to AI startup Hugging Face. Hugging Face disclosed the breach in July, suspecting an autonomously acting AI agent was responsible. Following the incident, major US AI companies, including OpenAI and Anthropic, said they were prepared to slow the pace of development. At the same time, some industry figures, along with President Donald Trump, have emphasized the need to maintain competitiveness in the race with China for AI leadership.
