OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman will brief the United Nations Security Council in person next week during the annual gathering of world leaders in New York for the UN General Assembly, Reuters reported on Friday, citing an OpenAI spokesperson.

The briefing will take place at an open Security Council meeting on artificial intelligence and international security scheduled for Wednesday, when the 15-member body convenes during the high-level week of the General Assembly. The session has been convened by France, which holds the council's presidency for September, and will be chaired by French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot. For more context on this story, see our ongoing AI industry coverage.

"Sam Altman will brief an open UN Security Council meeting in person next week," an OpenAI spokesperson told Reuters.

What Altman Is Expected to Say

According to Reuters, Altman's remarks are expected to focus on the need for international coordination and shared safety standards, as well as the steps OpenAI is taking to ensure that people around the world benefit from AI.

The appearance places the world's most prominent AI executive in front of the body charged with maintaining international peace and security, at a moment when governments are increasingly framing advanced AI not merely as an economic opportunity but as a technology with direct implications for national and international security.

Anthropic May Also Be in the Room

Diplomats told Reuters they also expected a high-level presence at the meeting from Anthropic, though that participation had not been confirmed. Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Any appearance by Anthropic would carry particular resonance given the company's high-profile posture on frontier AI risk in recent months, including its calls for a coordinated slowdown in the development of increasingly capable systems. The Security Council meeting comes just weeks after several AI industry leaders urged a coordinated slowdown, warning that AI could soon improve on its own and slip beyond human control.

France's Case for Urgency

In a concept note circulated to council members and seen by Reuters, France underlined "the urgency of action to foster safe and responsible development of artificial intelligence for the benefit of the international community as a whole."

The note cited the risk of misuse of AI for malicious purposes and said the meeting aims to let participants present their analysis of risks linked to loss of control, or to the use of the latest AI models to develop, facilitate, and conduct actions with an impact on international peace and security.

A Council Returning to a Familiar Theme

The Security Council has addressed AI before. It met for the first time on the risks of artificial intelligence in 2023, when China warned that the technology should not become a "runaway horse" and the United States cautioned against its use to censor or repress people. Wednesday's session represents a significant escalation in that engagement: where earlier meetings heard general warnings, next week's will include a live briefing from the CEO of the company whose products sit at the center of the AI boom.

Altman, for his part, has been warning about advanced AI risks since long before the current wave of commercial success. In a 2015 essay titled "Machine Intelligence, part 1," he wrote that "the development of superhuman machine intelligence is probably the greatest threat to the continued existence of humanity" — a line that predates OpenAI's rise and that will inevitably be resurfaced as he addresses the council.

Why It Matters

The symbolism of the briefing is hard to overstate. A technology company executive addressing the Security Council signals how far AI has moved up the international security agenda, alongside nuclear proliferation and cyber warfare. It also reflects a shift in the debate itself: after two years dominated by arguments about copyright, jobs, and misinformation, the convening power of the UN is being pointed squarely at frontier risk — loss of control, malicious use, and the absence of shared international standards.

What comes of it is another question. The Security Council has no regulatory authority over AI development, and its resolutions on emerging technology have historically been non-binding. But the meeting gives governments a stage to stake out positions — and gives AI companies an audience of foreign ministers and heads of state that no product launch could match. With France pushing for urgency and both leading US AI labs expected to be represented, Wednesday's session may well mark the moment AI governance became a fixed item on the agenda of global security diplomacy.

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