OpenAI and Anthropic Leaders Urge Caution at UN Security Council Meeting Convened by France

Sam Altman and Dario Amodei, the chief executives of OpenAI and Anthropic, addressed the United Nations Security Council this week during a session organized by France, which currently holds the council's rotating presidency, as concerns over the pace of artificial intelligence development draw increasing attention at the highest levels of international diplomacy.

Why the Security Council Is Weighing In

The meeting took place during the UN General Assembly's high level week in New York, when world leaders gather in one place, making it a natural moment for France to convene a session specifically focused on AI as a matter of international peace and security rather than purely economic or technological policy. It was not the council's first engagement with the topic. The Security Council first addressed AI risks back in 2023, when China warned against the technology becoming what it called a runaway horse, and the United States cautioned against its use to censor or repress people.

What the AI Leaders Actually Said

Altman's remarks focused on the safety work OpenAI says it is undertaking and the case for international coordination on shared safety standards, a position he has pushed in various forms for years, including in congressional hearings and public forums well before the current wave of AI investment and public attention. Amodei struck a more urgent note days earlier in a public essay, writing that developers must slow the pace at which they improve AI model capabilities, a call for restraint that both Altman and Elon Musk publicly backed in the days that followed.

UN Secretary General António Guterres reinforced the broader message in his own remarks to reporters ahead of the session, saying global coordination is also indispensable alongside national action on AI risk.

A Council With Limited Power Here

It is worth being clear about what this meeting can and cannot do. The Security Council has no authority to pass binding AI legislation or sanction a country over how it develops or deploys the technology, and observers close to the process have cautioned that sharply different positions among the council's five permanent members make a concrete joint outcome from this particular session unlikely. What the meeting does provide is a highly visible platform, putting AI safety directly in front of the same diplomatic body that handles questions of war, peace and international security, a symbolic elevation of the issue that AI safety advocates have been pushing for.

A Crowded Week for AI Diplomacy

The Security Council session was not the only AI focused event during the same UN General Assembly week. The Trump administration separately convened its own high level AI event, and AI featured as a expected topic in President Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping the same week, underscoring how thoroughly artificial intelligence has moved from a purely industry conversation into the center of major power diplomacy.

Sources: Reuters; AFP.

Photo by Airam Dato-on on Pexels