20 nations urge UN to create global AI oversight body

A coalition of 20 nations, led by Norway and Finland, called for a new global oversight body to monitor frontier AI models, urging the UN to explore creating an international institution for standards and verification. The declaration was adopted as the UN General Assembly opened in New York. Germany, Canada, and the European Commission were among the signatories, while major players like the U.S. abstained. The proposal echoes a structure recently pitched by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and recommends governments coordinate common standards for scientific capacity and trusted evaluation. The push follows recent existential warnings from major technology leaders about AI risks. The declaration specifically asks the UN to consider an institution that can set standards, enable verification, and convene states when capability thresholds are crossed.