Tech leaders urge UN to regulate AI, citing existential risks
Tech leaders from AI firms including Anthropic and OpenAI urged the UN Security Council on Wednesday to establish global regulations for artificial intelligence, warning that uncontrolled development could threaten humanity's future. They cited risks like AI making life-and-death decisions and potential loss of control over the technology. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified that international safeguards are needed to prevent AI from becoming too powerful to manage, while also calling for preventing concentration of power in one company or country. British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband supported the plea, saying the UK will prioritize AI control at next year's G20, though the US opposed new global governance structures. Concerns about autonomous weapons were highlighted, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warning that AI could soon decide battlefield outcomes, referencing a recent Russian drone attack. Chinese UN Ambassador Fu Cong advocated for open-source models and warned against forcing countries to take sides in tech competition.