OpenAI has called on the United States to lead an international effort to develop global technical standards for frontier artificial intelligence, including systems capable of autonomously improving their own capabilities.
The AI company made the call in a blog post on Monday as world leaders gathered in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, where artificial intelligence is expected to feature prominently in discussions.
OpenAI said the international community needed a mechanism for developing complementary national and global standards, alongside common measurement and incident-reporting protocols to support coordinated responses to AI risks.
“Leading now will determine whether the United States shapes the global AI framework or watches a fragmented, uneven, and conflict-ridden system take hold around it,” the company said.
The call comes amid growing debate in the AI industry over whether development of increasingly powerful systems should be deliberately slowed, a concept commonly referred to as “pacing”.
OpenAI said pacing should not involve maintaining a fixed rate of AI development, but ensuring that research into aligning AI systems with human values remains ahead of their capabilities and deployment.
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OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman is scheduled to brief the 15-member UN Security Council on Wednesday on artificial intelligence and international security.
The meeting was convened by France, which holds the council presidency for September, and will be chaired by French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot.
The Security Council first discussed the risks posed by artificial intelligence in 2023, when China warned against allowing the technology to become a “runaway horse”, while the United States raised concerns about its potential use for censorship and repression.
The renewed international debate comes as the administration of President Donald Trump opposes calls for a slowdown in AI development, arguing that a pause could allow China to narrow the technological gap with the United States.
Trump said earlier this month that the US already had safeguards for AI development and warned that uncertainty over the technology could benefit China.
He is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington this week, with AI expected to remain an important issue in the broader US-China technology competition.
