Sam Altman’s remarks at the United Nations Security Council

Today, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman addressed the United Nations Security Council on artificial intelligence. He discussed AI’s potential to expand opportunity, the importance of keeping powerful systems under human control, and the need for international cooperation on AI safety.

Thank you, Mr. President and your Excellencies. I’m honored to be here and to be able to speak with you all at this important time.

We have been talking about artificial intelligence for years, but it feels different in recent weeks and months. Rapid model progress has made the timeline feel more compressed, the upside more tangible, but also the stakes and the risks more immediate.

We have a choice in front of us. AI can either be more like a new Renaissance of creativity and discovery, or more like a new Industrial Revolution of upheaval and disarray.

The Renaissance was a time when new tools, new ideas, and new institutions expanded what people believed they could do. AI can play that role for our time. I believe that people are much more capable than they imagine themselves to be, but have been held back by limited technology that was meant to empower but instead distracts and often steals attention.

The best version of AI is not about making people cogs in a giant machine, or optimizing every part of life until the human parts disappear. It is about giving people more agency in an ever more complex world: more ability to learn, to create, discover, build, participate. There are many things that AI cannot—and should not—automate.

AI should be built for people, not simply to turn the crank of the machines faster for their own sake. Some of the things people working to build AI have said are so dystopian that they sound like the plot of bad science fiction movies.

Anything this powerful is also intimidating. This moment is complicated as we feel both tremendous potential and very understandable anxiety at the same time.

These models can help people discover new knowledge: new medicines, better health care, stronger education, and build more productive economies. They can be new tools for people to pursue dreams and ambition that today feel out of reach. The complexity of life has increased so dramatically for the average person. AI can be a defensive tool against this complexity as much as it can be this tool of unprecedented discovery and innovation.

On the other hand, as AI systems become more capable and more autonomous, they could move faster than our institutions, concentrate power in too few hands, or make decisions that people no longer understand or control.

That concern becomes especially important as we approach systems that can improve themselves and future versions of themselves, often called recursive self-improvement. As the process of building AI becomes more automated, the pace of AI progress could accelerate rapidly. This moment calls for extreme care.

I largely agree with Professor Bengio. Although I’ll say two instead of three—I believe there are two ways that AI progress could go very badly that we have to avoid.

First, we could lose control of the future to AI. The risk is that it moves so fast that people can no longer follow what’s happening or intervene when needed. This would obviously be terrible.

The industry must not accept too much technological risk just because the benefits are too great and that they feel too important to slow down. Beating companies in a competitive pace is not a reason to make rash decisions. Nor do we believe we are locked in a race where we are unable to do that. We have unilaterally slowed down in the past. We will do so in the future. We do not want to build systems—we think it’s important that everyone avoids building systems—where we cannot make the alignment, monitorability, and safety guarantees that we must.

We need to understand what these systems are doing and have strong evidence that they will do what people intend, even as they get very, very smart. Actually especially as they get very very smart. It doesn’t matter whether people put the risk of catastrophe at 10%, or 1%, or 12%, or .1%. None of these levels are remotely acceptable. And we should not train models that we cannot make an extremely strong case that we will be able to keep under human control.

So that’s one way things can go wrong. In the other direction, these systems could concentrate too much power in too few hands. No one person or company or country should be able to use the most powerful AI models to impose their worldview on everyone else. A company or country that believes only it can be trusted with this technology can use that belief to justify almost anything else. We have to reject that logic, even when it’s convenient for any one actor.

Ninaamini kuna njia ya kivitendo ya kushughulikia yote mawili. Katika OpenAI, tunayakabili maswali haya tukiwa na lengo wazi: AI inapaswa kuwapa watu mamlaka zaidi juu ya maisha yao wenyewe. Uhuru zaidi wa kuishi wanavyotaka. Uwezo zaidi wa kutatua matatizo, makubwa au madogo, na kuboresha jamii zao. Hatutaki kunaswa na mtego wa kuwa na matumaini yasiyo na msingi. Wala hatutaki kunaswa na mtego wa kuamini kwamba maangamizi hayaepukiki. Kuvutwa kuelekea mojawapo ya misimamo hiyo mikali hakutatusaidia kukabiliana kwa mafanikio na changamoto zilizo mbele yetu, hasa wakati ambapo ulimwengu na watu wake wanakabiliwa na changamoto kubwa sana ambazo teknolojia hii inaweza kusaidia kutatua. Kwa hiyo, tunajaribu kufuata njia ya kati baina ya misimamo hiyo miwili.

Kwetu, hiyo inamaanisha kanuni tatu.

Kwanza, kadiri AI inavyokuwa na uwezo zaidi, lazima watu waendelee kuwa kitovu cha maamuzi kuhusu AI. Ulinganifu si suala la kinadharia la utafiti. Ni kazi ya kuhakikisha kwamba mifumo hii inadumu kwa kutegemewa chini ya udhibiti wa binadamu, inaakisi maadili ya kibinadamu, na inawasaidia watu kuongoza hatua zinazofuata za maendeleo. Hatujaribu, na hatupaswi, kuendesha uamuzi au maadili ya binadamu kiotomatiki.

Pili, manufaa ya maendeleo ya kisayansi na ukuaji wa uchumi lazima yatokane na watu na yawe kwa ajili ya watu. AI inapaswa kuwasaidia watafiti kuvumbua, madaktari kuwatibu wagonjwa, walimu kuwafundisha wanafunzi, wajasiriamali kuanzisha kampuni, jamii kutatua matatizo yaliyoonekana kutoweza kufikiwa, na mengine mengi. Historia endelevu ya maendeleo ya binadamu si kwamba zana zinachukua nafasi ya uwezo wa binadamu wa kujiamulia. Ni kwamba zana zinazofaa huwawezesha watu zaidi, na ninaamini hili litafika mbali sana kuliko tunavyodhani linawezekana.

Tatu, teknolojia hii lazima iwawezeshe watu binafsi. Wakati bora ujao utatokana na watu kutimiza uwezo wao na kujenga thamani kwa manufaa yao wenyewe, jamii zao, nchi zao na ulimwengu mzima. Huenda sisi ni miongoni mwa wajenzi wa teknolojia hii, lakini sisi si mashujaa wa hadithi hii. Jukumu letu ni kuwawezesha watu kote ulimwenguni na kuamini maajabu ya ujuzi na vipawa vya binadamu.

Sasa tuna miundo inayoweza kugundua maarifa ambayo hatujawahi kuwa nayo. Fikiria maendeleo ambayo tumeona katika hisabati. Miaka mitatu iliyopita, miundo yetu ilikuwa na uwezo wa wastani katika hisabati ya shule ya msingi. Miaka miwili iliyopita, ilikuwa hodari katika mashindano ya hisabati ya shule za upili. Mwaka jana, tulifikia kiwango cha medali ya dhahabu katika shindano maarufu zaidi la kimataifa la hisabati. Na wiki chache tu zilizopita mwaka huu, mojawapo ya miundo yetu ilitatua mojawapo ya Matatizo ya Tuzo ya Milenia, milinganyo ya Navier–Stokes.

Milinganyo hii hutumika kubuni ndege, kutabiri hali ya hewa na kutafiti mtiririko wa damu. Hatutatui matatizo ya hisabati kwa ajili yake yenyewe, bali ili kuwawezesha watu kugundua maarifa mapya na kuyatumia kuboresha huduma za afya, kuinua viwango vya maisha na kupanua uwezo wa kila mtu kote ulimwenguni. Bado kuna mengi sana ya kugunduliwa.

Lakini ni muhimu sana kampuni zisichukue nafasi ya mchakato wa kidemokrasia.

Iwapo AI itakuwa ya kidemokrasia, maamuzi muhimu zaidi hayawezi kufanywa na maabara za San Francisco peke yake. Lazima yaamuliwe kupitia michakato ya kidemokrasia na serikali zinazowajibika kwa watu zinaowahudumia.

Katika ngazi ya kimataifa, hili litahitaji ushirikiano. Katika historia yetu, kumekuwa na nyakati ambapo nchi zinazoshindana na ambazo si mara zote zinapendana sana bado huungana kwa ajili ya maslahi ya pamoja na manufaa ya wote zinapokabiliwa na teknolojia mpya yenye nguvu. Tunaamini hii lazima iwe mojawapo ya nyakati hizo.

Tunahitaji utaratibu wa viwango vinavyokamilishana vya kitaifa na kimataifa vya AI ya kiwango cha juu zaidi: viwango vya kupima uwezo, kutathmini hatari, kubaini iwapo hatua za ulinzi zinatosha, na kudumisha usimamizi wenye maana wa binadamu kadiri mifumo inavyojitegemea zaidi.

Tunahitaji viwango vya pamoja ili nchi ziweze kulinganisha ushahidi, kuthibitisha uzingatiaji, na kuwa na lugha na uelewa wa pamoja kuhusu kinachoendelea.

Tunahitaji matukio yaripotiwe kwa usahihi na haraka, pamoja na itifaki za kuyaainisha na kuyaripoti, ili ulimwengu ujifunze kutokana na kushindwa kabla hakujawa majanga.

Pia tunahitaji njia salama za mawasiliano kati ya serikali, waendeshaji wa miundombinu muhimu na wataalamu wa kiufundi ili kushiriki taarifa kuhusu udhaifu unaoibuka na vitisho vipya.

Bila shaka, viwango hivi havipaswi kuwalinda waliokwisha kuimarika sokoni wala kupendelea muundo mmoja wa biashara kuliko mwingine. Lazima viwaunge mkono wasanidi wa miundo huria na funge, washiriki wapya na maabara zilizoimarika, mamlaka ya kitaifa na ushirikiano wa kimataifa. Kila serikali inapaswa kuamua jinsi ya kujumuisha viwango katika mfumo wake wa sheria. Lakini sote tutafaidika zaidi tukikubaliana kuhusu maana ya ushahidi mzuri, hatua bora za ulinzi na usimamizi bora katika ngazi ya kimataifa.

Hatuna majibu yote, na tuko tayari kabisa kupokea mawazo yoyote bora zaidi. Tuko tayari kushirikiana nanyi nyote na kufanya kila tuwezalo kubaini njia bora ya kusonga mbele.

Tuko njia panda. Njia moja inaelekea kwenye ulimwengu ambako mamlaka yanamilikiwa na wachache, maamuzi hayako wazi, na watu wanahisi kwamba teknolojia muhimu zaidi katika maisha yao ni kitu wanachofanyiwa. Njia nyingine inaelekea kwenye ulimwengu ambako AI inawafanyia watu kazi kwa sababu watu, kupitia taasisi za kidemokrasia, wanasaidia kuamua jinsi inavyopaswa kuendelezwa na kuongozwa; ambako maendeleo ya kisayansi yanaboresha maisha halisi; ambako watu wengi zaidi wanaweza kushiriki katika siku zijazo; na ambako teknolojia hii inaendelea kuwapa watu binafsi na jamii uwezo mkubwa zaidi wa kuishi wanavyotaka. Huu ni wakati ujao wa kutimiza uwezo wetu, wenye msisimko na maajabu.

Na tunaamini huo ndio wakati ujao unaostahili kujengwa. Asanteni sana.