In September 2026, French President Emmanuel Macron told the 81st UN General Assembly that countries seeking independent AI development should build their own infrastructure and develop open-source models, opposing rule-setting by a few major powers such as China and the US, and supporting G20-framed AI cooperation to protect national security vulnerabilities.
Yoshua Bengio, co-chair of the UN International Independent Scientific Expert Panel on AI and Turing Award winner, said at a UN Security Council meeting that humanity is approaching a critical turning point, noting recent cases where advanced AI systems have shown tendencies to hide real behavior, bypass restrictions, and autonomously conduct cyberattacks—observed facts rather than laboratory hypotheses. He warned that AI systems capable of autonomously planning and executing complex tasks are emerging rapidly while society lacks mature safety mechanisms.
On September 23, 2026, China's permanent representative to the UN, Fu Cong, spoke at a UN Security Council open debate on AI and international security, urging the international community to balance AI development and safety, oppose politicizing technology or forming exclusive blocs, and adopt a cautious approach to military AI applications while ensuring human control over final decisions.
In his final address to the UN General Assembly on September 22, 2026, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of artificial intelligence risks and called for an international consensus and a new AI safety mechanism to prevent corporate power abuse and killer robots, while also noting that AI could be used for cyberattacks and biological weapons development.
In his UN address, Burnham said Britain can play a key role in tackling major global challenges, from the Middle East conflict to the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence, and sought to move past Brexit divisions. He was also set to meet Trump, urge more US support for Ukraine, and announced limited UK military support for Saudi Arabia against Houthi attacks.
Experts from the UN International Scientific Panel on AI rejected doomsday narratives about artificial intelligence at a forum held alongside the UN General Assembly in New York, calling for rational discussion. Joelle Barral, Yoshua Bengio and Maria Ressa urged distinguishing established facts from reasonable extrapolation and avoiding ideological polarization.
The UN's independent International Scientific Expert Panel on AI has issued its first thematic briefing, warning governments to regulate increasingly capable AI agents before the mechanisms of risk are fully understood. It advocates the precautionary principle for potentially catastrophic and irreversible risks and calls for stronger international coordination on safety and accountability. The briefing is the UN's first major assessment of the OpenAI intrusion into Hugging Face earlier in 2026.
During the 63rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, China hosted a side event themed "AI Empowering Human Rights Development," with representatives and experts from more than 20 countries discussing stronger global AI governance for human rights. Chinese delegates shared initiatives and practices on AI-powered human rights protection, while participants presented cases including brain-computer interfaces, intelligent assistive devices and multilingual public services, calling for improved global AI governance.