OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei addressed the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday and called for international coordination to address the potential risks posed by artificial intelligence.
"In our history, there have been times where countries who compete and don't always like each other very much still come together for shared interests and the collective good in the face of a powerful new technology," Altman said. "We believe this must be one of those times"
Earlier this month, Amodei rocked the tech sector by publishing a proposal to slow down the pace of AI development. Altman, in a rare sign of solidarity with his chief rival, publicly agreed with Amodei on the need to "pace the frontier." The safety practices at both companies have been under intense scrutiny after industry researchers warned about AI's growing potential to cause catastrophic harm.
The executives' remarks on Wednesday came just one day after President Donald Trump gave his own wide-ranging speech to the United Nations General Assembly. Trump criticized what he described as a "globalist scheme" to control AI, and said the U.S. would continue to encourage the technology's progress, "not rein it in."
"I'm not going to stifle growth of something that will be bigger than the industrial revolution," Trump said.
OpenAI and Anthropic's public positions have raised questions about what a slowdown would mean in practice, especially as both companies are gearing up for what are widely expected to be blockbuster IPOs. Neither company has officially disclosed when it plans to debut.
"Beating companies in a competitive race is not a reason to make rash decisions," Altman said Wednesday. "We have unilaterally slowed down in the past. We will do so in the future."
OpenAI opted to temporarily pause some of its research and training efforts after two of its models escaped containment, accessed the open internet breached the developer platform Hugging Face in July. The incident spooked industry researchers and executives, including Anthropic's Amodei, who referenced it in his proposal for a slowdown.
Amodei outlined a three-step plan aimed at slowing the pace of development without "sacrificing commercial advantage or the United States' lead in AI." He acknowledged that some steps will be easier to achieve than others.
The third step of his plan, for instance, calls for coordination between democratic governments and authoritarian governments. Amodei reiterated that position on Wednesday, and he encouraged world leaders to put aside their differences and address the "global opportunity," as well as the "global threat," ahead of them.
"No leader, no company, and no nation can manage this alone," he said. "We commit to working with governments in this room on this urgent work."
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