SEOUL, October 08 (AJP) - A voluntary artificial intelligence safety pact that U.S. tech leaders signed at the White House last month could become the basis of a United Nations treaty, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said, adding that Kazakhstan would present its vision at the G20 summit in Miami in December.
U.S. President Donald Trump and the heads of six technology companies signed the White House Accord on Super Intelligence on Sept. 29. The signatories were Google's Sundar Pichai, Anthropic's Dario Amodei, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, xAI's Elon Musk and Nvidia's Jensen Huang.
The accord, subtitled "Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities," commits the companies to internal controls that monitor what their most advanced AI models can do, including cybersecurity, biological and chemical risks. It also calls for independent auditors to check whether those controls work.
The pact carries no force of law and sets no penalties for companies that fall short. President Trump told reporters at the White House after the signing that it was "morally binding." The same day, he signed an executive order directing federal agencies to use the term "Super Intelligence" in place of "artificial intelligence."
President Tokayev made his proposal on Oct. 2 at the third meeting of the Council for Artificial Intelligence Development, a presidential advisory body that brings Kazakh officials together with foreign technology executives and researchers. He called the Washington accord a "highly important and timely initiative."
"It reflects a common understanding that the risks associated with artificial intelligence extend beyond national borders and require coordinated action by both governments and businesses," President Tokayev said, according to the presidential press service.
"After careful review by experts, the agreement signed in Washington, D.C., could be considered by all interested countries as a model to be implemented globally in the field of artificial intelligence," he said. "I believe that the 'Washington model' could serve as the basis for an international treaty under the auspices of the United Nations."
The accord is a set of commitments between one government and six companies. A treaty under the United Nations would be an agreement among states.
President Tokayev offered Kazakhstan as a venue for those talks. "We are ready to serve as a platform for constructive international dialogue on these issues," he said, and he asked council members to submit concrete proposals for a Kazakh international initiative on AI "as soon as possible."
Foreign speakers at the council meeting included Kai-Fu Lee, chairman and CEO of Sinovation Ventures and founder and CEO of 01.AI, and Ya-Qin Zhang, founding dean of the Institute for AI Industry Research at Tsinghua University.
The council met a day after President Tokayev opened AI & Digital Bridge 2026, an international technology forum held in Astana from Oct. 1 to 3. He first praised the Washington accord in his opening address there.
"I would like to commend the recent signing of the Superintelligence Accord by leading American tech companies under the leadership of President Trump," he told the forum.
In the same speech, President Tokayev said AI should complement human intelligence rather than replace it. He said regulation should be strict only where security and the vital interests of citizens are at stake, so that promising talent and investment stay in Kazakhstan.
He also proposed an AI Challenge that would invite Kazakh and foreign teams to solve problems drawn from real demand across the economy, with the strongest solutions put to use in industry. Kazakhstan has already adopted a Law on Artificial Intelligence and a Digital Code.
The forum is the centerpiece of AI Month, a program of events running from Sept. 23 to Oct. 23 as part of the Year of Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, which President Tokayev declared for 2026.
Kazakhstan is not a member of the G20. President Trump invited President Tokayev to the summit in December 2025 after a phone call between the two leaders, and Kazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Aug. 12 that he would attend the meeting at Trump National Doral Miami on Dec. 14 and 15 as a guest of the United States, which holds the group's rotating presidency this year.
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