‘Innovation Must Serve Humanity — Not Undermine It’, Cautions Secretary-General, at Security Council Open Debate on Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a "double-edged sword", speakers told the Security Council today, holding tremendous latent power to benefit the world and drive the Sustainable Development Goals — while its misuse or weaponization, especially in the military sphere, could also pose an existential threat to humanity.
AI is "no longer a distant horizon" said António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations — it is here, "transforming daily life, the information space and the global economy at breathtaking speed". Used responsibly, AI can strengthen prevention and protection in myriad ways including anticipating food insecurity, supporting demining and helping identify potential outbreaks of violence. However, "without guardrails, it can also be weaponized", he stressed. Citing AI-enabled cyberattacks that can disrupt critical infrastructure in minutes and threats to information integrity, he emphasized: "Innovation must serve humanity — not undermine it."
"Humanity’s fate cannot be left to an algorithm," he stressed. Urging the Council and Member States to ensure that human control and judgment are preserved in every use of force, he again called for a ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems operating without human control, with a legally binding instrument by 2026. Similarly, any decision in nuclear weapon use "must rest with humans — not machines", he stressed.
Further, coherent global regulatory frameworks must ensure that AI systems comply with international law, while military uses are clearly regulated. Citing last December’s Assembly resolution on AI in the military domain, he also urged Governments, platforms, media and civil society to protect information integrity in situations of conflict, deterring AI-generated deception. Additionally, closing the AI capacity gap means creating space "for all nations to shape our AI future" — with talent development, reliable public infrastructure, data diversity to reduce bias and equitable access. With the window closing to shape AI for peace, justice and humanity, "we must act without delay", he stressed.
AI technologies could surpass human capabilities in most cognitive tasks within five to 10 years, stated Yoshua Bengio, Professor at Université de Montréal and Co-President and Scientific Director of Law Zero, speaking via videoconference. Despite trillions of dollars invested, "scientists still do not know how to design AIs that will not harm people, that will always act according to our instructions", he observed. While advances could help tackle some of society’s biggest challenges, he warned that: "If we don’t learn how to build trustworthy AI, humans are under threat from AI misuse by bad actors or through the misalignment of AI systems with societal norms and laws."
Citing AI risks in the report relevant to the Council’s discussion, he pointed to the loss of human control; malicious use in bioweapons, cyberattacks and disinformation; and possibly "enabling a disproportionate economic, political or military concentration of power". Urging action to mitigate these risks, he called for significant increase in global research on safe and trustworthy AI, with Governments exercising substantial oversight and control. Developed and managed safely, "AI offers extraordinary opportunities to improve human life and enhance collective security," he underscored.
AI’s Future Hinges on Global Participation
"We stand today at an extraordinary inflection point," said Yejin Choi, Professor of Computer Science and Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered AI. Noting that AI is accelerating scientific discovery — from advancing medicine to exploring the natural world — to expand the horizons of human knowledge, she stated: "Let us expand what intelligence can be — and let everyone everywhere have a role in building it."
In recent years, she said, developers have sought to build AI systems using ever larger datasets and computing power, delivering impressive results — while also meaning that the most advanced models are built by a mere handful of companies in just a few countries. "This concentration in the hands of a few narrows both our science and who gets to shape it", she cautioned. Urging alternative approaches to AI development that are more adaptive, resilient and accessible to the global community, she stressed: "If AI is to benefit humanity, access must be the north star."
The first dimension is building AI that is smaller, she continued, as ‘democratizing’ AI means rethinking "our dependence on massive-scale data", designing methods "that do more with less". This requires systems that learn with far less data, adapt through interaction and recognize what they do not know. Further, today’s leading AI models underperform for many non-English languages and reflect narrow cultural assumptions, she pointed out — excluding of entire communities from its benefits.
AI Technology Must Be Used for the Common Good
As the floor opened, France’s delegate hailed AI as "the major technological revolution of our century", adding that "it is already transforming our societies and economies". Underscoring that this technology must be used to promote peace and the common good, he pointed to the Global Partnership on AI, which France launched in 2019, alongside Canada. "We are crossing humanity’s most profound technological frontier," stressed David Lammy, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, as he declared that "our lives, our world, our politics are about to be flooded with super-powerful AI". He underscored that there is only one way forward: "resilience".
Lee Jae Myung, President of the Republic of Korea — which holds the Council’s presidency for September — spoke in his national capacity to invoke the words of Geoffrey Hinton [sometimes called the ‘Godfather of AI’]: "Today’s AI is like ‘a very cute tiger cub’." For his part, he observed: "This tiger cub before us may well grow into a predator that devours us, or it may become a beloved companion like Derpy from KPop Demon Hunters."
A number of speakers including Denmark’s representative stressed the need to mitigate risks and counter abuse or misuse, with Nataša Pirc Musar, President of Slovenia, stating: "The world has witnessed the growing digitalization of warfare." Contemporary conflicts — from Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine — have become "testing grounds" for the military use of new technologies. Soldiers on the ground can commit terrible acts, and some may develop a guilty conscience over the years. However, she said, algorithms, armed drones and robots created by humans have no conscience. "We cannot appeal to their mercy or beg them to spare their loved ones," she stressed. Warning that "malign actors are racing ahead in developing military AI capabilities", Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of Greece, urged the Council to rise to the occasion to "govern the age of AI", as it once did for nuclear weapons and peacekeeping.
On a related note, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Minister for Defence of Pakistan, emphasized that in the recent conflict in the subcontinent between India and Pakistan, for the first time autonomous munitions and high speed dual capable cruise missiles "were used by one nuclear armed State against another during a military exchange — which manifests the dangers which AI can pose". These developments raise serious questions about the future of warfare, he stated, noting that AI lowers the threshold for the use of force — making wars more politically and operationally feasible — and compresses decision time, narrowing the window for diplomacy and de-escalation.
The representative of the Russian Federation sounded the positive note that "if current growth rates continue, the AI industry could contribute up to 15ドル.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030". However, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), AI has the potential to take over nearly 40 per cent of jobs worldwide. As a result, advanced economies will have greater opportunities to leverage the benefits of AI than developing countries, exacerbating the digital divide and potentially leading to social tensions and new conflicts.
AI Must Prevent 'Risk of Digital Colonialism, Particularly in Africa’
Other speakers, including Hugh Hilton Todd, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Guyana, echoed that point, with Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, President of Somalia, warning of the "risk of digital colonialism, particularly in Africa". Ahmed Attaf, Minister of State, Minister for Foreign Affairs, National Community Abroad and African Affairs of Algeria, observed that the continent’s Internet coverage stands at 38 per cent, while the global average exceeds 68 per cent. While Africa is home to 18 per cent of the world’s population, it possesses only 1 per cent of total global data storage and processing capacity. While Africa is working to avoid being left behind, it rejects "being transformed into a lab rat" for testing such technologies.
Musa Timothy Kabba, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Sierra Leone, observed that Africa has always suffered "in the wake of every critical invention" — be it the "novel technology" that saw the bonding of Africans into slavery or the invention of gunpowder that "decimated Africans in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries". Calling the topic "quite visceral" for Africans, he called for a global-governance framework to "limit the adverse consequences of a few countries and private companies wielding such immense power over the rest of the world."
Javier Martínez Acha Vásquez, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Panama, urgently called for an international regulatory framework for the development and deployment of AI, to ensure transparency, equal access and effective regulation. Meanwhile, Ma Zhaoxu, Executive Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of China, urged the international community to reach a consensus on global AI governance and to guide AI development towards inclusiveness.
However, "We totally reject all efforts by international bodies to assert centralized control in global governance of AI," said the representative of the United States. The responsible diffusion of AI will help pave the way to a future of increased productivity, empowered individuals and revolutions in scientific advancement, he said — warning that broad overregulation incentivizes centralization, stifles innovation and increases the danger that these tools will be used "for tyranny and conquest". Further, "Ideological fixations on social equity, climate catastrophism and so-called ‘existential risks’ are dangers to progress" and obstacles to responsibly harnessing AI as an extension of human ingenuity."
Other global leaders also took the floor to weigh in on this issue. "We all live in a world where our lives are reliant on digital technologies," observed Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka, Prime Minister of Fiji. However, AI — a digital tool — cannot resolve issues relating to peace and security on its own as "peace is ultimately a human process", he said. And, stressing that AI "should serve exclusively the goals of peace, conflict prevention and protection of human life", Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Zhaparov called for the advancement of international standards and regulations to ensure the responsible use of AI technology.
Council Should Take Lead in Developing Rules to Govern Use of AI
"If this technology falls in the hands of illegal terrorists, we could witness an escalation that we might not be able to control in the future," stressed Aidarous Qassem Abdulaziz Al-Zubaidi, Vice-President of Yemen, pointing to the Houthis’ use of certain technology to attack maritime targets in the Red Sea. He stressed that, by offering its experience to the world, Yemen is playing its "role in promoting security and stability by explaining our experience and turning it into an opportunity for collaboration".
For its part, the Council can take the lead in developing rules to govern the use of AI in armed conflict and enforce standards limiting its use against humans, said Karol Nawrocki, President of Poland. Stating that his country, like many others, has become the target of increasingly intense attacks from hostile countries — "mainly Russia" — he pointed to over 100,000 confirmed incidents reported in Poland in 2024 alone. "AI can be our shield on this new cyberbattlefield," he said.
"Let’s not focus only on the risks that AI entails, but also on the opportunities it brings," underscored Dick Schoof, Prime Minister of the Netherlands. On that, he recalled his country’s creation of the Global Commission on Responsible AI in the Military Domain, which is presenting its final report today after 18 months of work — with concrete recommendations on how Governments can embed responsible AI in the military domain in their policy agendas.
Regardless, President of Portugal Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa underscored: "Human control, decision and accountability must be at the heart of the use of force. It is a moral, ethical and legal responsibility that cannot — and should not — be delegated."
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