LONDON: Countries and companies developing frontier Artificial Intelligence (AI) have agreed a ground-breaking plan on safety testing as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak brought the world’s first AI Safety Summit to a close on November 2.
In a statement, governments and AI companies recognised that both parties have a crucial role to play in testing the next-generation models, to ensure safety – both before and after the AI models are deployed.
In his statement, PM Sunak reminded: “It was here at Bletchley Park where code-breakers including the British genius Alan Turing cracked the Enigma (a complicated code used by Germany in World War II) cipher… and where we used the world’s first electronic computer.”
He also launched the world’s first Artificial Intelligence (AI) Safety Institute in the United Kingdom. This new global hub is tasked with testing the safety of emerging types of AI. It has been backed by leading AI companies and nations, according to an official statement.
The UK has agreed on two partnerships, one with the US AI Safety Institute and the other with the Government of Singapore – two of the world’s biggest AI powers – to collaborate on AI safety testing, added the release from PM’s Office.
Managing AI risks
India, along with countries like host UK, the US, Australia, and China, agreed to work to manage the risk that AI poses. Addressing the Summit on the concluding day, India’s Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, “I am confident that all like-minded nations will play a key role in harnessing AI for the global good. AI has presented opportunities for our future. Today, with over 800 million Indians on the internet, we have witnessed the very real harms caused by deep fakes and disinformation.”
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, reiterated his concerns about AI getting out of human control. He described advanced AI as “one of the biggest threats to humanity” given its potential to become far more intelligent than people.
The Bletchley Declaration, agreed by all countries attending the first day of the summit, is one of the several significant steps forward on building a global approach to ensuring safe and responsible AI. .
The Republic of Korea has agreed to co-host a mini virtual summit on AI in the next six months. France will then host the next in-person summit in a year from now.
