Altman asks the UN for shared AI rules.
The heads of OpenAI, Anthropic and Hugging Face asked the UN for common AI safety standards, and the Foreign Secretary backed them at the Security Council. The White House said no to any new global governance.3
Altman asks the UN for shared AI rules
Sam Altman of OpenAI and Dario Amodei of Anthropic addressed the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday in separate briefings on AI safety.2 Clement Delangue of Hugging Face spoke too, and all three called for common standards for judging the risks of AI.3
Altman sat at the corner of the council’s horseshoe table and spoke for about ten minutes.2 He asked for national and international standards on measuring what an AI tool can do, assessing its risks, its safeguards and how much human oversight is kept.3 He also asked for speedy incident reporting protocols, so that the world can learn from failures before they become catastrophes.3 “If AI is to be democratic, the most important decisions cannot be made by labs in San Francisco alone,” he said.2
Amodei spoke by video call and asked for international agreements, including a ban on using AI to develop biological weapons and global standards for testing new models.2 He said Anthropic would slow down as much as necessary to make sure each new release is safe.3 Delangue said the global community needs stronger standards for monitoring and incident disclosure.3
The Foreign Secretary, Ed Miliband, told the same council that the founders of the technology had come with a stark warning and that governments cannot ignore them.1 He set out three priorities: safety, meaning rigorous testing of frontier models; transparency, meaning governments can see what AI companies are doing; and resilience, including stronger cyber defences and protection for critical infrastructure and financial systems.1 He said the UK will put AI at the heart of its G20 Presidency next year and will work towards a single set of global principles and standards.1
The American government was not persuaded. Michael Kratsios, a technology adviser to President Trump, told the UN the risks were not reason enough to pause development or constrain it with new global governance structures.3 The Guardian noted that Altman’s speech contrasted with some of his company’s lobbying, and that a political action committee linked to OpenAI’s president has spent millions against candidates who back stronger regulation.2
What this changes for you
Nothing binds anyone yet. A speech at the Security Council is not a law, and the country where the biggest labs sit has said plainly it does not want one. What has changed is that the British government is now on the record in favour of testing, transparency and incident reporting, and the labs themselves are asking for the same thing. That is usually the direction rules travel in, slowly.
For a company here the practical point is the one the labs keep making without meaning to. If the people building these systems want failures reported and oversight kept, you should want the same from the agents you run. Know what each one is allowed to do, keep a record of what it did, and decide in advance who hears about it when something goes wrong. None of that needs a treaty.
Also today
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Anthropic says Claude found a Crispr-like enzyme system
Anthropic says Claude autonomously discovered a new enzyme system similar to the machinery behind Crispr, the first result from its new wet lab as the company prepares to go public.4
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How OpenAI’s Australian government hack happened
The BBC’s North America technology correspondent explains how the Medicare breach in the OpenAI Australian government hack happened, and why it matters for anyone running these systems.5
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Anthropic ships a Claude update after urging a slowdown
Anthropic has released an update to Claude after calling for AI development to slow down, and a member of staff said the company had also fixed the writing.7
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Meta holds its Connect product launch in Menlo Park
Meta held its annual September product launch, Connect, in Menlo Park, with a keynote from Mark Zuckerberg on how Meta is building a future for everyone.6
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Foreign Secretary Address to the UNSC on Artificial Intelligence
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OpenAI’s Altman and Anthropic’s Amodei address UN security council
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US rejects pleas from OpenAI, Anthropic for global AI standards
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Anthropic’s biolab made a discovery it’s comparing to Crispr
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What you need to know about the OpenAI Australian government hack
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Meta Connect 2026 live blog: On the ground at Mark Zuckerberg’s next big product launch
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Anthropic launches new update to Claude, after telling the world to slow down AI
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