Global representatives gather for Rishi Sunak’s AI safety summit
Representatives from the USA, France, Japan and China will attend the summit, though world leaders like President Biden will not make an appearance.
Representatives of countries from across the world are set to attend Rishi Sunak’s summit aimed at laying the groundwork for the safe use of artificial intelligence (AI).
The AI safety summit will take place on Wednesday and Thursday, with representatives from the USA, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore and China confirmed as attending.
Neither US President Joe Biden nor French President Emmanuel Macron will be at the summit, but Downing Street has denied the gathering is being snubbed by world leaders.
Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO and owner of the social media site X, will also attend and join the Prime Minister for a live interview after the summit closes on Thursday.
Mr Musk, a co-founder of OpenAI – the company behind the popular ChatGPT tool – has previously expressed concerns about the possibility of AI becoming hostile towards humans.
Conflict in the Middle East has since fixed the attention of world leaders, and in the US, President Biden has signed an executive order to “ensure that America leads the way in seizing the promise and managing the risks of artificial intelligence”.
But the UK Government has insisted the summit has merit, with a guest list including pioneering AI companies like UK-based Deep Mind, as well as OpenAI, and Anthropic.
“But the risks posed by frontier AI are serious and substantive and it is critical that we work together, both across sectors and countries to recognise these risks.
“This summit provides an opportunity for us to ensure we have the right people with the right expertise gathered around the table to discuss how we can mitigate these risks moving forward.
“Only then will we be able to truly reap the benefits of this transformative technology in a responsible manner.”
Alongside tech companies, civil society groups and experts from the Alan Turing Institute, and the Ada Lovelace Institute will be present.
The second day of the summit will focus on the responsible use of AI technology.
As the conference begins, the UK Government has meanwhile pledged £38 million towards funding artificial intelligence projects around the world, starting in Africa.
The commitment is part of an £80 million collaboration between Britain, Canada and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to boost “safe and responsible” programming, the Foreign Office said.
