Yahoo Finance Sunak to discuss AI pact with Biden amid ‘extinction risk’ warnings
Rishi Sunak will push for an “artificial intelligence pact” between governments and companies in talks with Joe Biden next week.
The Prime Minister said he would raise the issue of AI when he visits Washington for discussions as he acknowledged concerns that the technology poses an “existential risk” to humanity.
It is understood Mr Sunak will endorse proposals for a voluntary pact designed to prevent the worst harms before new laws addressing AI can be introduced.
US and EU officials met on Wednesday for talks on regulating the industry in the hope that an agreement can be reached in the coming months, though the Biden administration is thought to be divided on how to crack down on AI companies.
Details of the pact are yet to be confirmed, although G7 leaders said earlier this month that companies should work towards AI systems being accurate, safe and transparent, as well as not infringing copyright laws.
Mr Sunak, who last week hosted the chief executives of leading AI developers OpenAI, DeepMind, and Anthropic, said: “AI clearly can bring massive benefits to the economy and society.
“But we need to make sure this is done in a way that is safe and secure. That’s why I met last week with the CEOs of major AI companies to discuss what are the guardrails that we need to put in place, what’s the type of regulation that should be put in place to keep us safe.
“People will be concerned by the reports that AI poses an existential risk like pandemics or nuclear wars – I want them to be reassured that the government is looking very carefully at this.
“And I think the UK can play a leadership role because ultimately, we’re only going to grapple with this problem and solve it if we work together not just with the companies, but with countries around the world. It’s something that I’ve already been discussing with other leaders at the G7 summit the other week, I’ll be doing that again when I visit the US very soon.”
It comes after bosses at AI companies warned that the technology creates an “extinction” threat on a par with pandemics and nuclear war.
Around 350 executives and researchers signed a statement on Tuesday saying: “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”
Its signatories included Sam Altman, whose company OpenAI develops the popular chatbot ChatGPT.
EU officials discussed proposals for an AI pact with executives including Google’s Sundar Pichai last week, and have held talks in Sweden this week with US representatives.
Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s tech chief, told reporters that a pact is needed despite EU plans to regulate AI.
“In the best of cases it will take effect in two and a half to three years time. That is obviously way too late,” she said. “We need to act now.
“If the two of us take the lead with close friends, I think we can push something that will make us all much more comfortable with the fact that generative AI is now in the world and is developing at amazing speeds.”
US government departments are split on how to tackle AI, Bloomberg reported, with some parts of the White House concerned that cracking down on the technology would put US companies at a competitive disadvantage.
