Pakistan Urges UN Charter Oversight of Artificial Intelligence

Iftikhar Ali

United Nations: Warning against the dangers of unregulated artificial intelligence (AI), Pakistan has stressed that its use particularly in military applications must be governed by the UN Charter and international law.

“AI must not become a tool of coercion or technological monopoly,” Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told the UN Security Council on Wednesday during a high-level debate on AI under the agenda item “Maintenance of international peace and security”.

Calling for the prohibition of applications without “meaningful human control,” he cautioned that AI, while capable of advancing socio-economic progress, also risks widening inequalities and destabilizing global security.

Asif pointed to “the accelerating weaponization of AI” through autonomous weapons and AI-driven command-and-control systems, warning that they pose “grave dangers.” He cited the recent military exchange between India and Pakistan, where “autonomous munitions and high-speed dual-capable cruise missiles were used by one nuclear-armed State against another,” as evidence of the risks.

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“AI lowers the threshold for the use of force, narrows the space for diplomacy, and blurs domain boundaries by merging cyber, kinetic, and informational effects,” he said. The defence minister urged member states to ensure AI is harnessed “to promote peace and development, not conflict and instability,” preserving “the primacy of human judgment in matters of war and peace.”

Opening the debate, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said AI is “transforming daily life, the information space and the global economy at breathtaking speed,” but warned that “without guardrails, it can be weaponized.” He called for a legally binding ban on lethal autonomous weapons by 2026, stressing that “humanity’s fate cannot be left to an algorithm.”

Yejin Choi, Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered AI, noted that progress remains concentrated among a handful of companies and countries, leaving others “waiting at the door.” She urged investment in smaller, adaptive systems and greater linguistic and cultural diversity in AI development.

The Security Council session, chaired by South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung, was held on the margins of the General Assembly’s 80th high-level week.