World ‘a long way’ from alliance on AI, Sunak says
4 July 2023, 16:24
The Prime Minister emphasised his upcoming summit on AI safety will convene ‘like-minded’ nations.
Rishi Sunak has said the world is “a long way” from establishing an alliance on artificial intelligence (AI) that includes nations such as China and Russia.
The Prime Minister’s planned summit on the future of the technology will bring together “like-minded” countries, he emphasised.
Quizzed on the biggest dangers of AI during his appearance before the Commons Liaison Committee, Mr Sunak highlighted “large-scale societal shifts”, risk of “misuse”, and “national security risks”.
He said the “existential risk” of AI must be taken seriously because “there’s just a lack of understanding at this point about what the potential of these models might be”.
On the benefits of AI, the Prime Minister spoke of the possibility of tackling “incurable diseases like cancer and dementia or new ways to grow crops”.
He also pointed to a recent paper estimating that it could boost GDP by 10% over the coming decade and drive up productivity.
Mr Sunak was asked whether his conference in the autumn would be open to all nations, similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which includes China and Russia.
He said it would be “bringing people together who are thinking about these things in a similar way to exchange ideas, share information, as AI doesn’t respect national borders”.
Mr Sunak added: “We will all benefit from hearing and talking to each other in conversation with businesses themselves.
“We’re a long way from anyone establishing an IAEA equivalent for AI, those things are long into the distance.
“But in the first instance just talking through this with like-minded countries is a sensible thing.”
The Prime Minister declined to answer a question on whether there will be an AI Bill in the King’s Speech.
“What we need to do, and I think probably we can do lots of this without legislation, is sitting down and figuring out what are the safety features and guardrails that we’d like to put in place,” he said.
Mr Sunak said the UK “can lead” on AI safety research “because we already have good capability in it”.
