Though it has met previously to discuss cyber threats, this was the first time diplomats convened, under China’s Security Council presidency, to discuss how the rapid advancement of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, biotech, and additive manufacturing, along with digital technologies, are changing the landscape of peace and conflict. The United Nations has in recent years expanded its work to ensure the world realizes the benefits of new technologies and mitigates their risks. Secretary-General António Guterres has identified the risks of new technologies as one of the “'four horsemen’ in our midst—four looming threats that endanger twenty-first-century progress and imperil twenty-first-century possibilities.” His Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, launched last year, includes a series of proposals to ensure that everyone is connected, respected, and, protected online. He has repeatedly called for a ban on lethal autonomous weapons and the need to avoid the weaponization of new technologies. Member states have also for years engaged in discussions on cybersecurity and lethal autonomous weapons, slowly building shared understandings of norms and limits, if not keeping pace with the rapid pace of the threats.