‘Take it seriously’: UN Security Council meets for first time about AI risks

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2 years ago

July 19, 2023

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The United Nations Security Council has been told to “take AI seriously” as it met for the first time to discuss the risks and opportunities of artificial intelligence.

In the first-ever session of its kind at the world’s top diplomatic body, representatives from the 15 member countries heard how AI poses “catastrophic risks for humans” but also a “historic opportunity”.

Chaired by Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, the chamber heard from Jack Clark, co-founder of leading AI company Anthropic, and Professor Zeng Yi, co-director of the China-UK Research Center for AI Ethics and Governance.

“No country will be untouched by AI, so we must involve and engage the widest coalition of international actors from all sectors,” Mr Cleverly said.

“Our shared goal will be to consider the risks of AI and decide how they can be reduced through coordinated action.”

The Security Council members heard from two experts who outlined what they believe to be the immense opportunity OF AI but also the serious risks it poses and the urgent need for global unity on the issue.

“We cannot leave the development of artificial intelligence solely to private sector actors,” Mr Clark said. “Governments of the world must come together, develop state capacity, and make further development of powerful AI systems.”

He explained: “An AI system that can help us in understanding the science of biology may also be an AI system that can be used to construct biological weapons.”

He warned of the risks of not understanding the technology: “It is as though we are building engines without understanding the science of combustion.

“This means that once AI systems are developed and deployed, people identify new uses for them, unanticipated by their developers, many of these will be positive, but some could be misuses.”

Professor Zeng Yi, director of the Brain-inspired Cognitive Intelligence Lab, called on the UN as a body to take the subject seriously.

“The United Nations must play a central role to set up a framework on AI for development and governance to ensure global peace and security,” the professor said.

He warned: “AI risks human extinctions simply because we haven’t found a way to protect ourselves from AI’s utilisation on human weaknesses.”

Mr Clark added: “Even more challenging is the problem of chaotic or unpredictable behaviour. An AI system may, once deployed, exhibit subtle problems, which were not identified during its development.

“I would challenge those listening to this speech to not think of AI as a specific technology, but instead as a type of human labour that can be bought and sold at the speed of a computer and which is getting cheaper and more capable over time.”

‘Huge questions’ over AI

The two witnesses raised specific open questions which they said needed urgent answers. Who should have access to the power of AI? How should governments regulate this power? Which actors should be able to create and sell these so-called AI experts? And what kinds of experts can we allow to be created?

“These are huge questions,” Mr Clark said. “Humans go through rigorous evaluation and on-the-job testing for many critical roles.”

Professor Zeng Yi added: “It is very funny, misleading and irresponsible that dialogue systems powered by generative AI always argue ‘I think, I suggest’.”

“Well,” he said, “there are no ‘I’ or ‘me’ in the AI models. AI should never ever pretend to be human, take human positions or mislead humans to have the wrong perception. We should use generative AI to assist but never trust them to replace human decision-making.”

UK to host global AI summit

The UK is seeking a lead global role in driving forward international consensus on how to manage the AI risks with the opportunities. Last month, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that the UK will host the first major global summit on AI safety in the autumn.

As permanent members of the Security Council, China welcomed the gathering.

In brief comments to Sky News before the meeting, Ambassador Zhang Jun said he “welcomed the meeting” which would “help to add understanding to the issue”.

Closing the session, Mr Cleverly said: “Let us work together to ensure peace and security as we pass across the threshold of an unfamiliar world.”

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Every shop and home burned or ransacked: The Syrian city engulfed in tribal violence

Published

11 hours ago

July 19, 2025

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Every shop and home burned or ransacked: The Syrian city engulfed in tribal violence

The Syrian presidency has announced it’s assembling a special taskforce to try to stop nearly a week of sectarian clashes in the southern Druze city of Sweida.

The presidency called for restraint on all sides and said it is making strenuous efforts to “stop the fighting and curb the violations that threaten the security of the citizens and the safety of society”.

By early Saturday morning, a ceasefire had been confirmed by the US special envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, who posted on X that Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had agreed to a ceasefire supported by US secretary of state Marco Rubio.

The post went on to state that this agreement had the support of “Turkey, Jordan and its neighbours” and called upon the Druze, Bedouins, and Sunni factions to put down their arms.

Sky News special correspondent Alex Crawford reports from the road leading to Sweida, the city that has become the epicentre of Syria’s sectarian violence.

For the past 24 hours, we’ve watched as Syria‘s multiple Arab tribes began mobilising in the Sweida province to help defend their Bedouin brethren.

Thousands travelled from multiple different Syrian areas and had reached the edge of Sweida city by Friday nightfall after a day of almost non-stop violent clashes and killings.

“We have come to protect the [Arab] Bedouin women and children who are being terrorised by the Druze,” they told us.

Every shop and every home in the streets leading up to Sweida city has been burned or ransacked, the contents destroyed or looted.

We saw tribal fighters loading the back of pickup trucks and driving away from the city with vehicles packed with looted goods from Druze homes.

Several videos posted online showed violence against the Druze, including one where tribal fighters force three men to throw themselves off a high-rise balcony and are seen being shot as they do so.

Doctors at the nearby community hospital in Buser al Harir said there had been a constant stream of casualties being brought in. As we watched, another dead fighter was carried out of an ambulance.

The medics estimated there had been more than 600 dead in their area alone. “The youngest child who was killed was a one-and-a-half-year-old baby,” one doctor told us.

The violence is the most dangerous outbreak of sectarian clashes since the fall of the Bashar al Assad regime last December – and the most serious challenge for the new leader to navigate.

The newly brokered deal is aimed at ending the sectarian killings and restoring some sort of stability in a country which is emerging from more than a decade of civil war.

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Israel and Syria agree to ceasefire, says US ambassador to Turkey

Published

14 hours ago

July 19, 2025

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Israel and Syria agree to ceasefire, says US ambassador to Turkey

Israel and Syria have agreed to a ceasefire, the US ambassador to Turkey has said.

Several hundred people have reportedly been killed this week in the south of Syria in violence involving local fighters, government authorities and Bedouin tribes.

As the violence escalated in the southern province of Sweida, Israel launched airstrikes, including attacks on Wednesday on the defence ministry in Damascus and a target near the presidential palace.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government said it aimed to protect Syrian Druze – part of a small but influential minority that also has followers in Lebanon and Israel.

In a post on X, the US ambassador to Turkey, Tom Barrack, said Israel and Syria had agreed to a ceasefire supported by Turkey, Jordan and others.

“We call upon Druze, Bedouins, and Sunnis to put down their weapons and together with other minorities build a new and united Syrian identity,” Mr Barrack said in a post on X.

The Israeli embassy in Washington and Syrian Consulate in Canada did not immediately comment or respond to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency.

The ceasefire announcement came after the US worked to put an end to the conflict, with secretary of state Marco Rubio saying on Wednesday that steps had been agreed to end a “troubling and horrifying situation”.

After Israel warned it would destroy forces attacking Syrian Druze, Syrian President Ahmed al Sharaa told the minority group in a televised statement on Thursday that “we reject any attempt to drag you into hands of an external party”.

He then claimed Israel has “consistently targeted our stability and created discord among us since the fall of the former regime”.

It comes after the United Nations’ migration agency said earlier on Friday that nearly 80,000 people had been displaced in the region since violence broke out on Sunday.

It also said that essential services, including water and electricity, had collapsed in Sweida, telecommunications systems were widely disrupted, and health facilities in Sweida and Daraa were under severe strain.

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‘Horrific incident’ at sheriff training facility in LA – at least three people dead

Published

20 hours ago

July 18, 2025

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'Horrific incident' at sheriff training facility in LA - at least three people dead

At least three people have been killed after a “horrific incident” at a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department training facility, officials have said.

A spokesperson for the department said there was an explosion at the Biscailuz Center Academy Training in east LA.

The incident was reported at around 7.30am local time (3.30pm UK time).

Aerial footage from local channel KABC-TV suggests the blast happened in a parking lot filled with sheriff patrol cars and box trucks.

Attorney general Pam Bondi wrote on X: “I just spoke to @USAttyEssayli about what appears to be a horrific incident that killed at least three at a law enforcement training facility in Los Angeles.

“Our federal agents are at the scene and we are working to learn more.”

California congressman Jimmy Sanchez said the explosion had “claimed the lives of at least three deputies”.

“My condolences to the families and everyone impacted by this loss,” he said.

The attorney general said in a follow-up post that agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are “on the ground to support”.

The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, said the LAPD bomb squad has also responded to the scene.

“The thoughts of all Angelenos are with all of those impacted by this blast,” she said.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the incident, his press office said in a post on X.

“The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services is in contact with the Sheriff’s Department and closely monitoring the situation, and has offered full state assistance,” it added.

The cause of the explosion is being investigated.

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