Sam Altman to Brief UN Security Council on AI Sept. 23 While Trump Team Runs a Competing Event

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will address the UN Security Council in person on Wednesday, September 23, on the subject of artificial intelligence and international security, an OpenAI spokesperson told Reuters, as reported by CTV News and CP24.

The briefing lands during the UN General Assembly's high-level week in New York, when heads of state and their delegations descend on the city. France holds the Security Council's rotating presidency this month and convened the meeting. It will be chaired by French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot, according to a concept note obtained by Reuters and reported by The Straits Times.

That concept note lays out France's stated goal plainly: to "underline the urgency of action to foster safe and responsible development of artificial intelligence" given "the risk of misuse of this technology for malicious purposes." France says it wants council members to weigh in on the risks of AI models being used to "develop, facilitate and conduct actions with an impact on international security and peace."

An OpenAI spokesperson said Altman's remarks are expected to focus on the steps the company is taking to keep AI safe and beneficial globally, plus the case for international coordination and shared safety standards. The Straits Times reported that diplomats also expect high-level presence from Anthropic, though that was not confirmed as of Friday, and Anthropic did not respond to a request for comment.

Same day, different room

The UN meeting is not the only AI event that day. CNN's Jennifer Hansler, in a report carried by KESQ, said the Trump administration will host its own high-level AI event on the sidelines of the General Assembly, also on Wednesday. US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz, Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Jacob Helberg, and Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers are set to host it.

A source familiar with the event told CNN the US is framing it as a chance for other countries to partner with Washington on AI, with discussion expected on the "policy, legal, and regulatory conditions that enable adoption at scale, including free expression considerations." CNN also noted that President Trump has publicly dismissed fears about the technology, calling concerns about AI a "hoax" while raging against the idea of new government regulations.

The two-track approach reflects a real split. Altman himself has been sounding alarms about advanced AI since long before ChatGPT existed. 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 CTV News and The Straits Times both flagged in their Reuters-sourced reporting. Reuters also noted the Security Council meeting comes weeks after AI industry leaders warned the technology could soon improve on its own and slip beyond human control.

The concern isn't confined to one political camp. But the fix on offer from parts of the UN system, centralized multilateral oversight run through a body where authoritarian states hold veto power, is a different question entirely. Washington has consistently preferred coordination among allied democracies over ceding ground to a UN process it doesn't fully control, and that's a defensible position, not an isolationist one.

Crypto Briefing reported that the US voted against a 40-member Independent International Scientific Panel on AI, which the General Assembly approved 117-2 in February 2026. That specific vote count has not been independently corroborated by the other sources reviewed here, so treat it as reported by that outlet alone. Crypto Briefing also noted the Security Council previously took up AI in July 2023 and again in December 2024, both at US initiative.

The first Security Council AI session, per Reuters, saw China warn the technology shouldn't become a "runaway horse" while the US pushed back on using AI to censor or repress people. Those same fault lines, an authoritarian government wary of losing control and a US delegation wary of speech restrictions dressed up as safety, are likely to resurface Wednesday.

Claire Melamed, Vice President for AI and Digital Cooperation at the United Nations Foundation, told CNN she doesn't expect "a firm deliverable" from the Security Council session, citing sharp disagreement among the five permanent members: the US, China, Russia, France and the UK. Melamed said most observers are instead watching for what emerges from a separate meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, scheduled for Thursday, September 24, where AI is expected to be a central topic.

Whether that one-on-one produces anything more concrete than the Security Council session is the open question hanging over the whole week.