AI Leaders Urge UN For Global Safeguards, Warn Uncontrolled Technology Could Risk Humanity

New York, September 24, 2026: Leading artificial intelligence (AI) companies have called for the United Nations to implement safeguards for the rapidly evolving technology, warning that uncontrolled AI could pose significant risks to humanity. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told the UN Security Council, "If managed poorly, I even believe AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole."

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman echoed this sentiment, stating, "We could lose control of the future to AI." Both executives emphasized the need for countries to establish safeguards through the UN Security Council to prevent AI from becoming uncontrollable and to avoid concentration of AI power in a single company or nation. However, they also highlighted the potential benefits of AI, such as empowering individuals.

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband stated that the technology leaders' warnings should not be dismissed, adding that the executives are "telling us in stark terms that it cannot be left to them to prevent disaster from befalling the world." The UK aims to make AI controls a central focus when it leads the G20 next year. Meanwhile, the US opposes imposing new international controls, arguing that AI development should not be hindered.

Chinese UN Ambassador Fu Cong stressed the need for countries to choose AI technologies based on their own needs, warning against forming exclusive alliances in the tech sector and criticizing attempts at digital hegemony. A key concern for world leaders is whether humans or machines should control life-and-death decisions. Amodei, Altman, and Hugging Face CEO Clément Delangue addressed the Security Council as governments debate AI regulation, oversight, and verification.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautioned about "killer robots," urging the international community to establish common standards for testing and misuse. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot likened AI development to the atom age, emphasizing the need for international regulation to harness AI's potential while avoiding worst-case scenarios.

Concerns about AI's military use also dominated the UN meeting, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warning that AI could soon decide outcomes on battlefields. Data scientist Rumman Chowdhury cautioned against the term "killer robots," advocating for a more concrete discussion on who authorizes machines to select and attack targets, and who bears responsibility for the outcomes.

The UN discussions coincided with Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Washington, where AI interests closely monitored the talks with US President Donald Trump. Chinese officials advocated for open-source models, while US officials focused on maintaining AI's competitive edge.