NEW YORK — As artificial intelligence (AI) systems grow increasingly powerful and autonomous, a new initiative is positioning AI safety as a diplomatic challenge requiring the same level of international coordination as nuclear security and climate change.
AI Safety Connect, founded by Cyrus Hodes and Nicolas Miailhe, will convene approximately 100 high-level participants during the 80th United Nations General Assembly to address what organizers describe as an urgent need for global AI governance frameworks.
The quarterly pace of AI breakthroughs has created systems that are “more powerful, agentic, opaque, and difficult to control,” according to the organization’s mission statement. This rapid advancement has heightened concerns about both unintended consequences and deliberate misuse of AI technologies.
“AI safety is no longer a technical issue — it is a diplomatic one,” said Hodes, the initiative’s co-founder. “With AI systems advancing at unprecedented speed, we need the same kind of international cooperation that has governed nuclear security or climate change.”
The UNGA 2025 gathering will bring together representatives from UN agencies, governments, leading AI development companies, academic institutions, and civil society organizations. The summit aims to coordinate policy responses to advanced AI development across national borders and industries.
Participants will examine how advancing AI capabilities affect the role of AI Safety Institutes and government oversight more broadly. The event will also introduce the Global Call for AI Red Lines, a campaign advocating for international standards defining unacceptable AI uses and behaviors.
The red lines initiative has gained significant backing, with endorsements from over 200 prominent figures, including former heads of state and Nobel laureates, plus more than 70 organizations focused on AI governance.
Co-founder Miailhe emphasized that the initiative extends beyond single events. “Our mission with AI Safety Connect is to build lasting channels of trust and cooperation between policymakers, researchers, and frontier labs,” he said. “This is about creating the infrastructure for collective action so that when AI reaches dangerous thresholds, the world is prepared to respond together.”
The organization argues that no single company or country can adequately address the promises and risks posed by advanced AI systems. By embedding AI safety discussions into multilateral UN forums, the initiative seeks to ensure governance frameworks evolve alongside technological capabilities.
The timing coincides with growing international attention to AI governance, as policymakers worldwide grapple with regulating technologies that are developing faster than traditional regulatory guardrails.
Tensions were further inflamed when the U.S. rejected international AI oversight after the UN launched its first comprehensive AI governance body, The Global Dialogue on AI Governance.
Secretary-General António Guterres emphasized the urgency of the initiative, saying the body would “lay the cornerstones of a global AI ecosystem that can keep pace with the fastest-moving technology in human history.” Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu delivered stark warnings about the technology’s trajectory, telling attendees that “AI is the biggest threat that humanity has faced.”
However, Michael Kratsios, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, said, “We totally reject all efforts by international bodies to assert centralized control and global governance of AI.” His comments came as many heads of state, corporate leaders and other prominent figures endorsed the need for coordinated international action on AI development.
Kratsios argued that effective AI governance should prioritize “the independence and sovereignty of nations” rather than what he characterized as “bureaucratic management” by international organizations.
