Sam Altman’s remarks at the United Nations Security Council
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman addressed the United Nations Security Council, discussing AI safety, human control, and the need for international cooperation. Altman highlighted both the immense potential and the risks of rapidly progressing artificial intelligence systems. He emphasized that powerful models must remain under human control and that decisions regarding AI should not be made by labs in San Francisco alone.
The Core Development
Today, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman addressed the United Nations Security Council on artificial intelligence. He discussed AI’s potential to expand opportunity, the importance of keeping powerful systems under human control, and the need for international cooperation on AI safety.
Thank you, Mr. President and your Excellencies. I’m honored to be here and to be able to speak with you all at this important time.
We have been talking about artificial intelligence for years, but it feels different in recent weeks and months. Rapid model progress has made the timeline feel more compressed, the upside more tangible, but also the stakes and the risks more immediate.
Deployment & Availability
Obviously, these standards should not lock in incumbents or favor one business model over another. They must support open and closed model developers, new entrants and established labs, national authority and international cooperation. Each government should decide how to incorporate standards into its own legal system. But we will all be better off if we can agree on what good evidence, good safeguards, and good oversight look like on the global stage.
Strategic Perspective & Ecosystem Impact
We have a choice in front of us. AI can either be more like a new Renaissance of creativity and discovery, or more like a new Industrial Revolution of upheaval and disarray.
The Renaissance was a time when new tools, new ideas, and new institutions expanded what people believed they could do. AI can play that role for our time. I believe that people are much more capable than they imagine themselves to be, but have been held back by limited technology that was meant to empower but instead distracts and often steals attention.
The best version of AI is not about making people cogs in a giant machine, or optimizing every part of life until the human parts disappear. It is about giving people more agency in an ever more complex world: more ability to learn, to create, discover, build, participate. There are many things that AI cannot—and should not—automate.
Why it matters
The engagement between leading AI developers and international bodies like the UN Security Council signals growing pressure for global oversight and governance of advanced artificial intelligence systems. It underscores the industry's need to address safety, alignment, and democratic accountability as model capabilities rapidly advance.