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| A view of the Security Council meeting on Ukraine on Sept 23, 2025 (UN Photo) |
NEW YORK 24 Sept 2025: The United Nations Security Council will convene for a high-level open debate on Wednesday on artificial intelligence (AI) under the “Maintenance of international peace and security” agenda item.
Republic of Korea (ROK) President Lee Jae Myung will chair
the debate, which is the ROK’s signature event during its September Council
presidency. Briefings are expected from UN Secretary-General António Guterres;
Yoshua Bengio, Professor at Université de Montréal and Co-President and
Scientific Director of LawZero (via videoconference); and Yejin Choi, Professor
of Computer Science and Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Institute for
Human-Centered AI.
According to the concept note prepared by the ROK, the
debate will focus on the implications of AI for international peace and
security. One of the main objectives of the meeting is to encourage discussion
on mitigating the risks and maximising the benefits of AI in the context of
international peace and security, while considering the council’s role in this
process.
Another objective is to invite members to share best
practices of AI use, including in relation to military applications.
The concept note poses several questions to help guide the
discussion, including:
How can member states utilise AI and guide its development
to advance international peace and security?
How can the Council assist in ensuring the responsible
application of AI in a way that complies with international law and supports
peace processes, conflict prevention, peace operations, post-conflict recovery
and early warning?
What are the most immediate risks posed by the misuse of AI,
and how can the Council address these through its tools and mandates?
How can the Council strengthen and improve ongoing UN and
other international initiatives aimed at securing responsible development and
use of AI?
In recent years, there have been significant advances in the
development and use of AI technologies, which carry the potential to both
advance and undermine international peace and security. Recognising these
developments, the Council has recently started devoting more attention to this
issue. This will be the third formal Council meeting on AI to date. The UK held
the Council’s first formal meeting on this topic during its July
2023 presidency. The US convened the second formal meeting in December 2024. In
addition to these, council members have also hosted several Arria-formula
meetings on AI issues.
The discussions of AI in the context of peace and security
have primarily taken place within specialised forums such as the Group of
Governmental Experts (GGE) on emerging technologies in the area of lethal
autonomous weapons systems (LAWS), which was established in 2016 under the
auspices of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.
The General Assembly has been increasingly active in
addressing AI-related issues. On 24 December 2024, it adopted a resolution,
co-drafted by the Netherlands and ROK, titled “AI in the military domain and
its implications for international peace and security”.
The text affirmed that international law — including the UN
Charter, international humanitarian law, and international human rights law — remains
fully applicable to the use of AI in military contexts. It also underscored the
need for the responsible and human-centred use of AI in these contexts
At the Summit of the Future held on 22 September 2024,
member states adopted the Pact
for the Future along with
its annexes: the Global
Digital Compact (GDC) and
the Declaration on Future
Generations. The Pact outlined the vision of member states for the future of
multilateralism.
In Chapter 2 on international peace and security, Action
27(d) committed member states to continue assessing existing and potential
risks associated with the military applications of AI. The GDC also decided to
establish a multidisciplinary Independent International Scientific Panel on AI
(IISP-AI) and to initiate, within the UN, a Global Dialogue on AI Governance.
The General Assembly adopted a resolution (A/RES/79/325) on
26 August, which set out the terms of reference and modalities for both
initiatives. Under the terms of the resolution, the IISP-AI will present an
annual report at the Global Dialogue, which will meet annually in the margins
of existing relevant UN conferences and meetings, alternating between Geneva
and New York.
The Panel will include 40 members, appointed in their
personal capacity for three-year terms, with balanced geographical
representation. In a 26 August statement, Secretary-General spokesperson
Stéphane Dujarric described the adoption as a major step in global efforts to
harness the benefits of AI while managing its risks.
Most council members share a common understanding of the fundamental challenges and opportunities posed by AI. There seems to be broad agreement among members that AI poses immense potential for good—such as improving peacekeeping, conflict prevention, and humanitarian responses—while also posing a potential threat to international peace and security if misused.
Some members share a common position on the need to address
the digital divide between developed and developing countries. African members
of the Council have been particularly vocal on this issue.
While Council members are becoming more aware of the
potential impact of AI in areas of peace and security, they have diverging
views on the Security Council’s role in addressing this issue. Some members see
the need for the council, as the primary organ for maintaining international
peace and security, to stay abreast of technological advancements in order to
anticipate and prevent threats to global peace and security.
Other members are more cautious about framing the issue
narrowly within a security context, advocating for broader discussions in the
General Assembly and specialised forums to avoid duplication. Russia, in
particular, has expressed concerns about pre-empting outcomes from processes
such as the General Assembly’s Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) on security of
and in the use of information and communications technologies and the GGE on
LAWS.
There is also increasing interest in understanding the
importance of leveraging AI technologies to enhance the UN’s work and improve
the Council’s decision-making processes, which may become even more relevant in
the context of potential reforms under the Secretary-General´s UN80 initiative.
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