Leaders from major artificial intelligence companies addressed an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday, calling for heightened vigilance regarding the rapid advancement of AI technology. During the session in New York, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei committed to decelerating development where necessary to guarantee the safety of future models.
“This moment calls for extreme care,” stated OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. He cautioned that as systems grow more autonomous and capable, they could outpace institutional oversight and consolidate power within a small number of entities. Altman emphasized that the industry must not accept excessive technological risk simply because the potential benefits are significant.
Altman also urged international cooperation, noting that history shows competing nations can unite around shared interests when faced with powerful new technologies. “We believe this must be one of those times,” he said.
Pledges to Slow Down
Following Altman, Amodei acknowledged that increasingly powerful AI models require even more stringent safety standards. He stated that Anthropic is working to improve its ability to prevent misuse.
“We will slow down as much as necessary in order to make sure that every successive AI technology that we release is actually safe,” Amodei said via video link. He added that poor management of the technology could pose a risk to humanity as a whole.
Rising Alarms and Political Divides
The briefing comes amid a series of alarming incidents involving AI. Clement Delangue of Hugging Face revealed that his platform was recently targeted by autonomous software from OpenAI, marking one of the first known attacks of its kind. Additionally, Jacob Coxon, a researcher formerly employed by both OpenAI and Anthropic, resigned in early September, accusing both firms of “gambling with our lives” in the race to create self-improving AI models.
Despite these warnings, political resistance to regulation remains strong in the United States. President Donald Trump rejected international oversight of AI on Tuesday, labeling such proposals a “globalist scheme.” Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, argued that rapid advancement is not a reason to pause development or impose new governance structures.
International Push for Standards
Conversely, other global leaders are pushing for coordinated action. UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced plans for Britain to lead an effort to establish global AI standards during its 2027 G20 presidency. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot also called for joint action within the UN framework to set rules for the new era.
Canadian computer scientist and AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio told the Security Council that growing concern over recent advances must be channeled into productive action. Meanwhile, Altman described his company’s approach as seeking a “middle path,” avoiding both blind optimism and “doomerism.” Delangue added that the world needs open-source AI more than ever to defend itself against similar cyber threats.
These discussions occur just before President Trump is scheduled to host Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a summit where AI policy is expected to be a key agenda item.
Wait, so they want to slow down but also win the race? You can’t have both. Something has to give here, and it’s likely safety.
As a researcher, I’ve been warning about this for years. It’s chilling that companies are competing for supremacy while experts scream about safety.
Trump calling oversight a ‘globalist scheme’ while AI leaders beg for rules shows just how deep the political divide runs. Dangerous timing.
Slowing down development sounds noble, but without binding international enforcement, it’s just PR. Who actually polices the pause?
I find it amusing that OpenAI is attacking Hugging Face while simultaneously calling for global regulation. Hypocrisy at its finest.