Altman takes his 2015 warning to the UN Security Council

Sam Altman will speak in person at an open UN Security Council meeting on artificial intelligence and international security, an OpenAI spokesperson told Reuters on September 18. The 15-member Council meets on September 23, while world leaders are in New York for the UN General Assembly.

The spokesperson said Altman’s remarks were expected to focus on the need for international coordination and shared safety standards, along with the steps OpenAI is taking to make sure people around the world benefit. Diplomats said they also expected a high-level presence from Anthropic, but that had not been confirmed.

Altman was warning about the risks long before the current AI boom. In a 2015 essay, “Machine Intelligence, part 1”, he called the development of superhuman machine intelligence “probably the greatest threat to the continued existence of humanity”. He argued that such a system did not have to be “the inherently evil sci-fi version” to be deadly. In his “more probable scenario”, it “simply doesn’t care about us much either way” and wipes out humans while pursuing some other goal. He wrote then that it was “extremely hard to put a timeframe” on it, and that progress might look slow and then “all of a sudden go vertical”.

The meeting comes only weeks after several AI industry leaders called for a coordinated slowdown in developing the technology, warning that it could soon improve on its own and slip beyond human control. In recent weeks OpenAI asked members of Congress for clear guidance on whether orchestrating an industry-wide slowdown on frontier AI development would be legal, WIRED reported.

The Council first met on AI risks in 2023, when China said the technology should not become a “runaway horse” and the United States warned against using it to censor or repress people.

France convened this session as Council president for September, and Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, will chair it. A concept note France circulated to Council members, seen by Reuters, cites “the risk of misuse of this technology for malicious purposes” and says France “wishes to underline the urgency of action to foster safe and responsible development of artificial intelligence for the benefit of the international community as a whole.”

The same note says the meeting is meant to let participants “present their analysis of the risks linked to loss of control or the use of the latest AI models to develop, facilitate and conduct actions with an impact on international security and peace.”