1st global AI safety summit concludes in UK

LONDON

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he believes that “there is nothing in our foreseeable future that will be more transformative for our economies, our societies and all our lives than the development of technologies like Artificial Intelligence.”


Speaking at a closing press conference of a 2-day AI safety Summit held in Bletchley Park, UK, Sunak said the summit aimed to address the risks that AI use could bring.


“But as with every wave of new technology, it also brings new fears and new dangers,” he said.


Sunak said the summit discussed “both the political will and the capability to control this technology and secure its benefits for the long-term.”


Sunak said during the event, the attendees “analysed the latest available evidence on everything from social harms like bias and misinformation to the risks of misuse by bad actors through to the most extreme risks of even losing control of AI completely.”


“And yesterday, we agreed and published the first ever international statement about the nature of all those risks. It was signed by every single nation represented at this summit covering all continents across the globe and including the US and China,” he added, referring to a declaration signed on Wednesday.

He said a shared understanding should keep pace with the rapid deployment and development of AI.

Sunak said new AI models are only tested for safety by companies developing them but “that must change.”


“So building on the G7 Hiroshima process and the Global Partnership on AI, like-minded governments and AI companies have today reached a landmark agreement,” Sunak said, adding that they “will work together on testing the safety of new AI models before they are released.”

Sunak added that the AI safety is not the work of a single summit and that is why two summits are planned for next year in South Korea and France.

The British premier concluded the summit by quoting late British scientist Stephen Hawking who had said “AI is likely to be the best or worst thing to happen to humanity.”

“If we can sustain the collaboration we’ve fostered over these last two days, I profoundly believe that we can make it the best,” Sunak said.

“Because safely harnessing this technology could eclipse anything we’ve ever known.

"If, in time, history proves that today we began to seize that prize, then we will have written a new chapter worthy of its place in the story of Bletchley Park and, more importantly, bequeathed an extraordinary legacy of hope and opportunity for our children and generations to come,” he added.