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By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 18 (Reuters) – OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman will brief the United Nations Security Council next week during the annual gathering of world leaders in New York for the UN General Assembly, an OpenAI spokesperson said on Friday.
The 15-member Security Council is due to meet on Wednesday on artificial intelligence and international security, just weeks after several AI industry leaders called for a coordinated slowdown of the development of the increasingly powerful technology, warning that it could soon improve on its own and slip beyond human control.
“Sam Altman will brief an open UN Security Council meeting in person next week,” an OpenAI spokesperson told Reuters. “His remarks are expected to focus on the steps OpenAI is taking to ensure AI is safe and benefits people globally, along with the need for international coordination and shared safety standards.”
The UN Security Council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, met for the first time on the risks of artificial intelligence in 2023, when China said the technology should not become a “runaway horse” and the United States warned against its use to censor or repress people.
Altman has been warning about the risks well before the current AI boom. In a 2015 essay titled “Machine Intelligence, part 1”, he said the “development of superhuman machine intelligence is probably the greatest threat to the continued existence of humanity”.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols and Deepa Seetharaman, Editing by Franklin Paul)
