Yahoo Finance Boost for Sunak as tech chief hails Britain’s AI potential
US data giant Palantir has said Britain is a better place to develop artificial intelligence (AI) than the EU thanks to more “pragmatic” privacy laws, in a boost to Rishi Sunak.
Chief executive Alex Karp said a draconian data protection regime in Brussels meant “you’re going to be able to do things in the UK that you can’t do on the continent”.
Mr Karp’s comments come as the Prime Minister is set to meet President Joe Biden to pitch Britain as the home of a proposed new global AI regulator.
Mr Sunak is seeking to position the country as a world leader in the nascent technology. Mr Karp told the BBC that the UK was “in a position to be a leader in Europe, perhaps globally”.
The Palantir chief executive said: “There’s a general understanding in the UK that you need data, you need to be able to understand the data, to actually do important things in the government and private sector.”
Palantir’s technology is used by Western militaries and intelligence agencies, including in Ukraine, and was widely used in the NHS to help manage the vaccine rollout.
The company has deployed “large-language model” (LLM) chatbots similar to ChatGPT or Google Bard, which allow its customers to quickly and easily query massive amounts of data. It is unclear whether LLMs are compatible with Europe’s strict GDPR data laws.
Italy’s data regulator briefly banned ChatGPT earlier this year on privacy grounds. Sam Altman, the chief executive of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, has said it may have to shut down in Europe, although he later retracted the comments.
While the UK has imported GDPR protections from the EU post-Brexit, it has proposed relaxing some of the rules and the Information Commissioner’s Office has said it will take a common sense approach to enforcing the laws.
Mr Karp said: “The UK, as opposed to many places in the world, has a pragmatic understanding of data protection. It’s going to be much harder for the continent of Europe to come to terms with LLMs, the culture of privacy in the UK is really built around fairness and understanding and less around GDPR data protection.
“If you’re a pharmaceutical company and you want to do research on a medicine you’re going to be able to do things you can do in the UK that you can’t do on the continent, you have a pragmatism about technology.”
Mr Karp also dismissed calls from Elon Musk and others for a pause in AI development, saying many were “asking for a pause because they have no product”.
The praise from Palantir comes amid fears in London that the US and the EU may strike an AI regulation deal over Britain’s head, resulting in the UK becoming a rule-taker instead of a rule-maker.
Downing Street wants to create a global forum to shape global norms of AI, including countries such as Japan and South Korea. A Government spokesman 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.”
Earlier in May the Prime Minister met the bosses of leading AI companies including OpenAI, Google Deepmind and Anthropic as he urged them to think carefully about risks posed by the technology.
The Prime Minister is expected to meet the President on Thursday after announcing that the UK will host a global summit on artificial intelligence safety in September.
