The UK government has announced that it will be hosting the world’s first major international summit on the safety of artificial intelligence (AI), which will bring together major global players, leading technology companies and researchers.
The aim of the summit will be to delineate key safety measures to evaluate and monitor the most significant risks from AI.
According to UK prime minister Rishi Sunak and US president Joe Biden, the UK and US will take a coordinated approach to the opportunities of emerging technology, with the two meeting at the White House yesterday [7 June 2023].
Sunak also used the trip to Washington as an opportunity to advocate for the UK becoming a global centre for AI regulation.
A major motivation for the summit is addressing the rapid pace at which AI is developing, with last week seeing dozens of leading experts warned about the potential for AI to endanger humanity.
The summit, which will be hosted in the UK this autumn, will consider the risks of AI and their mitigation through shared international action.
In July, the UK foreign secretary will convene the first ever briefing of the UN Security Council on the opportunities and risks of AI for international peace and security.
The UK ranks third globally for talent and fourth for commercial opportunity according to Tortoise Media’s Global AI Index.
On the advent of the summit, Rishi Sunak, UK prime minister, said: “AI has an incredible potential to transform our lives for the better. But we need to make sure it is developed and used in a way that is safe and secure.
“Time and time again throughout history we have invented paradigm-shifting new technologies and we have harnessed them for the good of humanity. That is what we must do again.”
Last month, OpenAI and Anthropic opened offices in London, with OpenAI appointing UK firm Faculty as their technical integration partner and announcing the expansion of Google Deepmind, which is headquartered in King’s Cross.
The UK and US are two of the only three countries in the world to have a tech industry valued at more than US$1tn.
