UK Government Details AI Safety Summit Ambitions

Tom Jowitt,
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houses of parliament

Government announces key objectives for the global AI Safety Summit in November, being held at Bletchley Park

The UK government has set the agenda for the upcoming AI Safety Summit, as it seeks engagement with other countries and researchers.

The Government on Monday announced the five objectives of the AI Safety Summit being held on the 1st and 2nd November at Bletchley Park.

The announced objectives come as Secretary of State Michelle Donelan this week launched the formal engagement of Jonathan Black and Matt Clifford, the Prime Minister’s Representatives, to begin discussions with countries and some frontier AI organisations.

Last week a roundtable was hosted by the Secretary of State with civil society groups.

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Key objectives

As part of a consultative process, the UK shared the five objectives that will frame the discussions at the AI Safety Summit in November. These are:

  • a shared understanding of the risks posed by frontier AI and the need for action;
  • a forward process for international collaboration on frontier AI safety, including how best to support national and international frameworks;
  • appropriate measures which individual organisations should take to increase frontier AI safety;
  • areas for potential collaboration on AI safety research, including evaluating model capabilities and the development of new standards to support governance;
  • showcase how ensuring the safe development of AI will enable AI to be used for good globally.

The government noted that individual countries, international organisations, businesses, academia and civil society are already taking forward critical work and driving international collaboration on AI including at the UN, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), Council of Europe, G7, G20 and standard development organisations.

The UK AI Safety Summit will build on these important initiatives by agreeing practical next steps to address risks from AI.

UK lead

The summit comes after multiple calls from some AI experts about real world risks of ungoverned development of AI systems in the years ahead.

In July the issue of AI was discussed the United Nations Security Council, as nations and governments around the world grapple over its regulation and governance.

The UK under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had agreed with President Biden in June to host an international summit on the risks and regulation of AI later this year.

The UK PM also said he wanted the UK to be the “geographical home” of coordinated international efforts to regulate AI.

The UK has already set out its own plan to regulate the artificial intelligence (AI) sector and proposed five principles to guide its use via its “adaptable” AI plan, so as to not stifle innovation.

Other governments and nations are at different states of proposed legislation of the technology.