U.S. Lays Out Sovereign-First AI Framework at UN Security Council
The Trump administration called for bilateral technology partnerships and rejected centralized international oversight as the session's participating nations debated how AI governance should be structured.
Michael Kratsios, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, told the UN Security Council on September 24, 2025, that the United States opposes global regulatory frameworks for artificial intelligence and will pursue AI leadership through bilateral dealmaking and technology exports — not multilateral governance bodies.
By Aaron Rose · Tech Reader Magazine · September 23, 2026
UN Security Council
The Security Council convened its highest-level open debate on artificial intelligence on September 24, 2025, under the agenda item Maintenance of International Peace and Security. South Korea held the Council's rotating presidency for September and chaired the session, with President Lee Jae Myung presiding. Secretary-General António Guterres and two expert briefers — Yoshua Bengio of Université de Montréal and Yejin Choi of Stanford University — provided opening remarks. Twenty nations delivered statements.
The United States was represented by Kratsios, whose remarks laid out the Trump administration's three-pillar AI framework: accelerating innovation, building infrastructure, and leading international AI diplomacy and security. He described AI as a technology set to "define the future of economic growth, national security and global competitiveness" and said the administration is resolved to stand "at the forefront in developing and deploying frontier AI models."
The U.S. Policy Position
Kratsios said the administration's goal is to establish "American AI as the global gold standard" and to enable allies and trading partners to build "sovereign AI ecosystems with secure American technology." He described an AI export program — proposed by President Trump — that would deliver "full-stack AI technology packages globally" through bilateral deals and diplomacy.
On the question of international governance, Kratsios stated that the United States "totally rejects all efforts by international bodies to assert centralized control and global governance of AI." He said the administration views the path to a flourishing AI future as running through "the freedom and duty of citizens, the prudence and cooperation of statesmen, and the independence and sovereignty of nations" rather than through multilateral regulatory structures.
"We believe broad over-regulation incentivizes centralization, stifles innovation and increases the danger that these tools will be used for tyranny and conquest," Kratsios said. "Ideological fixations on social equity, climate catastrophism, and so-called existential risk are dangers to progress and obstacles to responsibly harnessing this technology as an extension of human ingenuity and capacities."
On national security applications specifically, Kratsios said the administration is resolved that AI used in that domain will be "consistent with the highest levels and standards of privacy, civil liberties, transparency and protections found in the laws of the United States." He called on all Council members to pursue the same approach — building sovereign AI capacity through bilateral engagement.
"A prosperous future will not be secured by a global regulator. It will be secured by sovereign nations that adopt super intelligence, responsible companies that build it, and free people who refuse to be ruled by fear." — Michael Kratsios, posting to X after the session; reposted by the White House
The Broader Debate
The session was convened as part of a series of international discussions on AI governance that have included the Responsible AI in the Military Domain summits in The Hague and Seoul, the AI Action Summit in Paris, and General Assembly resolutions establishing an Independent International Scientific Panel on AI and a Global Dialogue on AI Governance.
Secretary-General Guterres, briefing the Council before member state remarks, organized his comments around four areas: human control over the use of force, global regulatory frameworks, information integrity, and the AI capacity gap between developed and developing nations. He called for a legally binding ban on lethal autonomous weapons systems operating without human control, with a target of 2026, and said decisions on nuclear weapons "must rest with humans — not machines."
Bengio, co-chair of the International AI Safety Report — produced by more than 100 independent experts under a mandate from 30 countries, the EU, the OECD, and the UN — identified three risk categories the report addresses: concentration of power, malicious use including in biological and cyber domains, and misalignment between AI system behavior and human intent. He called for international verification mechanisms comparable to those developed for nuclear technology.
Choi focused on access and representation, arguing that AI development concentrated in a small number of companies and countries limits both the technology's benefits and the diversity of perspectives that shape it. She called for investment in smaller, more accessible AI systems and for training data and evaluation methods that reflect a broader range of languages and cultural contexts.
Other member states staked out positions across a range of governance approaches.
China called for development of AI "for the greater good" while opposing what its representative described as "unilateralism and protectionism" and technology restrictions.
Russia questioned whether the Security Council was the appropriate venue, preferring existing multilateral forums it said offered broader participation.
France, the UK, Greece, and others each called for international law to govern military AI applications and for human oversight requirements in autonomous systems.
Pakistan's Defense Minister referenced the recent India-Pakistan military exchange in which, he said, autonomous loitering munitions were used by one nuclear-armed state against another, and described that exchange as evidence that AI is already lowering the threshold for the use of force.
Somalia's president warned of "digital colonialism" and called for equitable AI access across the developing world.
Algeria's foreign minister noted that only 10 of 55 African Union member states have AI regulations in place.
The Session and the Record
The open debate format does not produce binding resolutions. It allows member states to formally state positions in the UN record without obligating other parties.
The full transcript of Security Council meeting S/PV.10005 is publicly available through the UN Document System at docs.un.org. The session was broadcast by UNifeed.
Kratsios posted a summary of his position to X following the session. The White House reposted it.
The Policy Record
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