AI executives press UN for global oversight

Executives from major AI companies used a UN Security Council meeting during the UN General Assembly in New York City to press for global oversight of the technology. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that poorly managed AI could become “a risk to humanity as a whole,” while OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said humanity could “lose control of the future of AI” if key choices are left to private labs.

Altman argued that decisions about democratic AI should be shaped by governments accountable to their citizens, not only by companies in San Francisco. France and the United Kingdom supported the call for common international frameworks, while Hugging Face CEO Clement Delangue said his company had used AI to defend itself after being attacked by AI.

The push faces resistance from the United States and China, whose rivalry over powerful AI systems makes new limits politically difficult. US representative Michael Kratsios rejected “centralised control and global governance of AI,” while UN officials and experts pointed to earlier efforts, including a 2024 UNGA resolution calling for personal data protections, risk monitoring and human rights safeguards.