Debate over artificial intelligence regulation has become a stage for the technology rivalry between the United States and China. Britain has pushed for a single standard, while the U.S. opposed the creation of a new regulatory regime. China went further, calling for wider adoption of open-source models. As governments diverged, some AI companies appealed to the United Nations for regulation as part of an argument for slowing down development.
British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told the U.N. Security Council on the 23rd that AI would be central to Group of 20 discussions, according to major foreign news outlets. When Britain chairs the G20 meeting next year, it will put control of AI at the center of the agenda and "seek a single global standard to ensure that AI is developed safely," he said.
The U.S. took the opposite position. Michael Kratsios, the White House science adviser, said concerns about controlling AI were not a reason to halt further development or to restrict it through a new global governance structure, adding that he hoped the benefits of AI technology would be shared.
China offered a third path. Fu Cong, China's ambassador to the U.N., stressed that every country should be able to choose the AI technology it wants. He warned against forming "narrow us-versus-them" factions in the technology field that press other countries to take sides, and against allowing certain major powers pursuing "digital hegemony" to gain strength. Instead, he urged countries to promote open-source models — China's approach to technology access.
It was the AI companies that asked for regulation. Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic, argued at the Security Council that the fast-growing AI technology his own company is developing should be regulated. "I think that if it is not properly managed, AI could become a danger to all of humanity," he said. Sam Altman, chief executive of OpenAI, said control over the future could be taken away by AI. The two companies differ from Chinese AI firms in that they have released their latest frontier models in a closed rather than open-source form.
The executives said countries around the world should put safeguards of some kind in place to keep AI from spiraling out of control. They also urged a global effort to prevent the influence of AI from being concentrated in particular companies or countries. At the same time, they stressed the positive side of the technology, with Altman saying AI advances humanity and lets "people have more authority over their own lives."
Miliband said the heads of AI companies were saying they could not be left alone with the responsibility of preventing catastrophe for the world, and that their words could not be ignored.
