U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declared Wednesday that the United Nations should take a central role in overseeing and administering global artificial intelligence development, arguing that market forces alone cannot be trusted to manage the technology’s risks.
Guterres, a former Portuguese Socialist Prime Minister, made the case to reporters at the U.N., warning that AI carries both known and unknown dangers that governments cannot ignore. “The world cannot afford a race to the bottom on AI safety,” he said, adding that development “is racing ahead of our understanding of the risks.”
The comments come after President Donald Trump dismissed warnings that AI could threaten humanity as “a HOAX” and accused advocates of limiting the technology of pushing a “SICK conspiracy.” Trump and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg have both argued that market competition, not government mandates or international bureaucracy, is the right way to keep AI companies in check.
Guterres rejected that approach. He told U.N. reporters that governments must take the lead on protecting citizens from AI risks, calling “national action” essential, but insisted that alone isn’t enough.
“But global coordination is also indispensable,” Guterres said. “We need guardrails to build trust — and that make AI safe, transparent, accountable, with human dignity at the center.”
That’s the opening Guterres wants the U.N. to fill. He said AI will be a central topic when he meets with world leaders next week at the annual high-level session of the U.N. General Assembly, which draws officials from all 193 member nations.
“The United Nations will continue to explore practical ideas and approaches in the immediate days ahead,” Guterres said, according to the Associated Press. “We need a shared understanding of how to advance the safe, secure and responsible development of AI — while identifying when increasingly powerful systems may require stronger safeguards, or additional measures to manage potential risks.”
Asked whether next week’s gathering would be the ideal moment to push for tighter controls on AI, Guterres signaled something bigger is coming. “I think it makes full sense at the right moment to have a serious international summit on artificial intelligence,” he said, adding that any such summit would need “everybody on board” — governments, companies, scientists, and civil society groups. “I hope that this will be possible.”
The push sets up a direct clash between the U.N.’s vision of centralized, government-driven AI oversight and the Trump administration’s bet that competition and innovation, not new layers of international bureaucracy, are what will keep the technology in check.
