British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is bringing together government officials, academics and tech moguls from around the world for a two-day AI Safety Summit Wednesday and Thursday at Bletchley Park, the once top-secret headquarters of World War II-era codebreakers.
The inaugural symposium is a moment for key players in global affairs to spar over the future of frontier AI, specifically whether the technology represents a danger to humanity and what can be done to mitigate that potential threat. Frontier AI is a broad term for general-purpose systems that can operate on the very cutting-edge of today’s software.
The 100-person guest list includes Elon Musk, the richest man on earth; Sam Altman, the brain behind ChatGPT; and a host of prominent professors and researchers.
World leaders are among those in attendance, including U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris; China’s Vice Minister of Science and Technology Wu Zhaohui; U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres; and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
China, a frontrunner in AI development, has a key role in the forum as Sunak attempts to position himself as a middleman between East and West. The decision to invite China was met with mixed reactions at home in the British Parliament and abroad.
Jane Hartley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, made clear that the White House had no part in bringing China to the table.
“This is the U.K. invitation, this is not the U.S.,” Hartley told Reuters. “When the U.K. government was talking to us, we said it’s your summit. So, if you want to invite them, invite them.”
Last week, top officials with the Five Eyes, an intelligence alliance that includes the U.K. and the U.S., banded together for an unprecedented public appearance in which they accused China of stealing tech secrets from Western nations on a massive scale.
As concerns over China’s influence on Big Tech mount, U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law an executive order on Monday giving the federal government greater regulatory power over AI where it may endanger national security, public health or the economy.
On Wednesday, Kamala Harris delivered a speech at the summit outlining her administration’s efforts in curbing the risks of generative AI. Harris announced the creation of The United States AI Safety Institute, a new task force on AI to recommend guidelines and identify risk factors.
Harris also urged other nations to sign on to a U.S.-sponsored pledge for the “responsible and ethical” use of AI in the military.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters.
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