Security Council discusses 'curbing artificial intelligence'

United Nations – Agencies: Leaders of leading artificial intelligence companies have called for increased vigilance regarding the technology. Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic, developer of the Claude model, pledged to slow the pace when necessary to ensure the safety of new releases. Amodei had previously opened a discussion on curbing the speed of AI development, amid concerns about its impact on humanity and the risk of it getting out of control.

During an emergency session of the UN Security Council held overnight on Wednesday into Thursday, Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, developer of ChatGPT, said, “This moment requires careful attention.” He warned that as AI systems’ capabilities and autonomy increase, they may evolve faster than institutions can keep up, or become concentrated in the hands of a limited number of parties.

Altman was among a group of prominent figures in the sector who briefed the Council on AI developments, amid recent concerns about the technology getting out of control and calls to slow its development pace. Speaking before the 15-member Council, Altman said, “This sector should not accept an excessive level of technological risk simply because the benefits are so great and important that slowing down is not an option.”

Amodei followed, stating that his company recognizes that as AI models become more powerful, “stricter safety standards will be needed,” emphasizing that Anthropic’s goal is to improve its ability to prevent the misuse of this technology. In a video call, Amodei said, “We will slow down as much as necessary to ensure that every new generation of AI technology we release is truly safe.”

The list of speakers before the Security Council also included Clément Delangue from Hugging Face, which recently suffered a cyberattack by an independent program developed by OpenAI, marking the start of a series of incidents that sounded the alarm about this rapidly evolving technology. Altman stressed that his company would try, as much as possible, to follow a “middle path,” adding, “We don’t want to fall into the trap of blind optimism,” while simultaneously warning against “catastrophism.”

Delangue explained that while his company was the victim of AI-powered attacks, it had also used the same technology to counter these attempts. He argued that “the world needs open-source AI more than ever to defend itself.”

Altman, Amodei, and several senior officials from AI companies have long called for global oversight of the technology. OpenAI has urged the United States to lead an international effort to establish AI standards. However, Washington and Beijing, the sector’s leading powers, reject any regulations or constraints that would hamper their national companies in the frantic race to dominate this technology.

US President Donald Trump stated that the United States must maintain its position in the AI race, warning that losing it could place the country in a difficult position. His administration also reiterated its rejection of calls to slow AI development, arguing that any slowdown could give China an opportunity to close the technological gap.