OpenAI, Anthropic CEOs at UN call for global cooperation on AI: 'We are at a crossroads' - ABC News - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos

The leaders of OpenAI and Anthropic delivered a clear message to the United Nations Security Council Wednesday afternoon: the threat of AI is real and the time to act is now.

Addressing a room of high-level foreign ministers, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said "this moment calls for extreme care."

"We have a choice in front of us. AI can either be more like a new renaissance of creativity and discovery, or more like a new industrial revolution of upheaval and disarray," Altman said.

The address comes amid a growing global debate over how to rein in increasingly powerful artificial intelligence technology.

Both Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei stressed the need for global cooperation to set AI safety standards as the technology rapidly develops.

"We are at a crossroads. One path leads to a world where power is concentrated, decisions are opaque, and people feel that the most important technology of their lifetime is something being done to them. The other path leads to a world where AI works for people," Altman said.

The tech leaders warned about the risk of humans losing control of AI systems and of the systems getting into the wrong hands.

"If managed poorly, I even believe that AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole. At Anthropic, we believe we have the best track record in the industry for preventing these risks, both operationally and in our research," Amodei said.