Artificial intelligence (AI) systems capable of operating beyond human control pose an unprecedented cross-border threat requiring stronger international cooperation, the United Nations (UN) Security Council has heard.
Leading AI executives and researchers briefed the Council on the technology’s benefits and risks, including effects on warfare, civilian infrastructure, sovereignty and geopolitical stability.
Turing Award Recipient and Independent International Scientific Panel on AI Co-Chairperson Yoshua Bengio warned that no country could manage the danger alone.
The prospect of AI operating beyond human control represented an unprecedented threat “that none can contain alone and that does not respect the borders we defend”, Bengio said.
Liberia Permanent Representative to the UN Lewis Garseedah Brown II said technological advances required corresponding improvements in international oversight.
“History teaches us that humanity’s greatest transformations are never defined by technological breakthroughs alone,” Brown said.
“Every fundamental leap in capability has demanded an equal leap in governance.”
Brown said the founders of the UN could not have anticipated neural networks or frontier computing systems. However, technologies capable of changing warfare and international security fell within the Council’s mandate.
The international community should establish safeguards before a systemic failure or catastrophic miscalculation occurred.
“We must not allow the cost of today’s hesitation to become tomorrow’s catastrophe,” Brown said.
The global response should avoid both excessive regulation that prevented beneficial innovation and complacency that allowed dangerous development.
Brown said advanced computing became a direct security concern when linked to cyberattacks on civilian infrastructure, autonomous weapons and geopolitical competition.
“Council engagement is not duplication, it is conflict prevention,” Brown said.
China Permanent Representative to the UN Fu Cong warned countries against forming exclusive technology alliances designed to maintain advantages over rivals.
Fu rejected “banding together into a petty us-versus-them clique in the tech sector” to support attempts by major powers to pursue technological monopolies and digital dominance.
Such approaches could restrict progress in smaller countries while creating fragmented technical standards and incompatible systems, Fu said.
Fu called for international cooperation, open-source systems and shared scientific and technological development.
Technology companies, “especially tech giants”, should accept legal regulation and public oversight while addressing misinformation and hate speech.
“AI is a shared asset for all humanity, and should not become rich countries’ and rich people’s game,” Fu said.
–UN/ChannelAfrica–
