The United Nations wants to be in charge of artificial intelligence, and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres isn’t being shy about it.
The former Portuguese Socialist Prime Minister declared Wednesday that the sprawling globalist organization stands ready to assume central oversight, control, and administration of AI development worldwide. His pitch to world leaders: the risks are too great to leave this technology to the free market.
“The world cannot afford a race to the bottom on AI safety,” Guterres warned, positioning the U.N. bureaucracy as the answer to fears about runaway technology.
The timing is no accident. Guterres made his move just after President Donald Trump pushed back hard against AI doomsayers, calling threats that artificial intelligence might destroy humanity “a HOAX” and blasting efforts to limit the technology as part of a “SICK conspiracy.”
Trump isn’t alone. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has joined the president in arguing that market pressure, not government mandates and centralized bureaucratic control, will keep AI developers accountable. They’re betting on competition and innovation over committees and regulations.
Guterres is betting the other way.
“Governments must assume their first responsibility to protect civilians from AI threats,” the U.N. chief told reporters, according to the Associated Press. He acknowledged that “national action is essential” but quickly added his real priority: “global coordination is also indispensable.”
“We need guardrails to build trust, and that make AI safe, transparent, accountable, with human dignity at the center,” Guterres said.
Translation: the U.N. wants a seat at the table. A big one.
The secretary-general announced that AI will dominate his discussions with world leaders at next week’s high-level session of the U.N. General Assembly. But he’s already looking beyond that gathering of officials from 193 member nations.
“I think it makes full sense at the right moment to have a serious international summit on artificial intelligence,” Guterres said when asked whether next week’s meeting might be the right venue for curbing AI’s excesses.
At such a summit, the career bureaucrat explained, “it is absolutely essential to have everybody on board,” including governments, companies, scientists, and civil society. “I hope that this will be possible.”
The U.N. chief cited concerns from those on the frontlines of AI technology that development “is racing ahead of our understanding of the risks.” Those warnings, he insisted, cannot be ignored.
“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,” Guterres said.
The push for international AI governance comes as nations race to lead in the technology. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned that if China “were to pull ahead of us on AI, nothing else matters,” highlighting the high stakes of the global competition.
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Guterres promised the U.N. “will continue to explore practical ideas and approaches in the immediate days ahead.”
Whether American innovation will answer to globalist committees or continue operating under market forces may depend on what happens next week in New York.
