António Guterres says AI "is racing ahead of our understanding of the risks" and urges cooperation

At a U.N. briefing Wednesday, Secretary-General António Guterres urged countries competing in artificial intelligence to join forces against the technology’s dangers, warning that safety standards should not be weakened by rivalry. He pointed to concerns from AI practitioners that the field is changing faster than risks can be assessed, saying they must not be ignored, and that governments have a primary duty to shield their citizens while cross-border cooperation is required. Guterres was responding to a plan from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei for major firms and governments to synchronize a slower development pace. OpenAI’s Sam Altman and SpaceXAI’s Elon Musk have recently said development should be slowed, while Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said each AI company bears responsibility for safety. Guterres added that AI will be a major topic at next week’s U.N. General Assembly leaders’ meeting.