The focus of the summit is on high-performance, general-purpose models called “Frontier AI.”
Bletchley Park, England:
China said on Wednesday it wants to work with international partners to manage oversight of artificial intelligence, as political leaders and technology executives met at a first AI security summit in Britain to plan the way forward.
Some tech bosses and political leaders have warned that the rapid development of AI poses an existential threat to the world, sparking a race among governments and international institutions to shape protections and regulations for the future.
In a first Western attempt to guide the safe development of AI, a Chinese vice minister joined leaders from the United States and the European Union, as well as technology chiefs including ChatGPT’s Elon Musk and Sam Altman.
“China is willing to enhance our dialogue and communication in the field of AI security with all sides and contribute to an international mechanism with global participation in a governance framework that requires broad consensus,” Wu Zhaohui said at the start of the summit according to an official translation of his remarks.
“Countries have the same right to develop and use AI, regardless of their size and size,” he added.
Elon Musk, who has warned about the risks of AI, said the summit wanted to establish a “third-party arbiter” for companies developing the technology so that he could sound the alarm on evolving risks, thereby instilling public confidence.
The meeting, held at Bletchley Park, home of Britain’s World War II codebreakers, is the brainchild of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. He would like to give Great Britain a role as a mediator between the economic blocs USA, China and the EU.
The focus of the summit is on high-performance, general-purpose models called “Frontier AI.”
Participating governments presented a “Bletchley Declaration,” in which 28 countries and the EU agreed on the need for transparency and accountability from actors in border AI technology, including how they use potentially harmful capabilities measure, monitor and mitigate.
A collective plan
UK Digital Minister Michelle Donelan said it was an achievement to bring so many key players together in one place.
“For the first time, countries now agree that we need to pay attention to the risks associated with border AI not just independently, but together,” she told reporters.
Given the country’s role in the development of AI technology, China is an important participant. But some British lawmakers have questioned whether this should be the case given low trust between Beijing, Washington and many European capitals over Chinese involvement in technology.
The United States made it clear on the eve of the summit that the call to Beijing had largely come from Britain, when its ambassador to London, Jane Hartley, told Reuters: “This is the UK’s invitation, this is not the US’s.” “
US Vice President Kamala Harris also spoke outside the summit in London on Wednesday, explaining her administration’s response to AI after US President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Monday.
The timing and location of her speech raised eyebrows among some members of the UK’s ruling Conservative Party. They suspect Washington is trying to overshadow Sunak’s summit – an accusation rejected by British officials who say they want as many votes as possible. Kamala Harris will meet Rishi Sunak later on Wednesday and attend the second day of the summit on Thursday.
US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo used the summit to announce the start of a US trade agreement. AI Safety Institute and said it would work with the recently announced British institute.
Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, Francois-Philippe Champagne, said that AI is not limited by national borders and therefore interoperability between different applicable regulations is important.
“The risk is that given the trajectory and speed at which things are moving, we do too little rather than too much,” he told Reuters.
Topics on the agenda include how terrorists could use AI systems to build bioweapons and the technology’s potential to trick people and wreak havoc on the world.
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