Concerns of Existential Risk: UK Prime Minister to Initiate AI Pact Discussions with US

 

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak concerned over existential risk of AI Image
Credit: Google

The British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will initiate a push for an “artificial intelligence pact” between governments and companies in talks with US President Joe Biden next week.

According to the Premier, he would raise the issue of Artificial Intelligence when he visits United States for discussions as he acknowledged concerns that the technology poses an “existential risk” to humanity. The Telegraph reported.

Mr Sunak aims at endorsing proposals for a “voluntary pact” will be formulated to prevent the worst harms before new laws addressing AI can be introduced.

United States and European Union officials met on Wednesday for talks on regulating the industry with the aspiration that an agreement can be reached in the coming months. Although the Biden administration is thought to be divided on how to crack down on Artificial Intelligence companies.

The nitty gritty of the Pact is yet to be decided: 

Details of the pact are yet to be confirmed. Although Group of Seven (G7) leaders said earlier this month in the summit held in Japan that companies should work towards Artificial Intelligence systems being accurate, safe and transparent, as well as not infringing copyright laws.

Similarly, China has already started work to establish regulatory system over Artificial Intelligence companies working there.

In the last week, Mr Sunak hosted the chief executives of leading AI developers OpenAI, DeepMind, and Anthropic, said: “AI clearly can bring massive benefits to the economy and society. But we need to make sure this is done in a way that is safe and secure.”

The Prime Minister after meeting felt the need to establish regulatory systems. He also discussed with the CEOs of major AI companies about what are the guardrails that we need to put in place, what’s the type of regulation that should be put in place to keep the humanity safe.

As the CEOs stated that “People will be concerned by the reports that AI poses an existential risk like pandemics or nuclear wars.”

In response, the Prime Minister said, “I want them to be reassured that the government is looking very carefully at this.”

“And I think the UK can play a leadership role because ultimately, we’re only going to grapple with this problem and solve it if we work together not just with the companies, but with countries around the world. It’s something that I’ve already been discussing with other leaders at the G7 summit the other week, I’ll be doing that again when I visit the US very soon.”

Statement to Mitigate the Risk of AI:

Around 350 executives and researchers signed a statement on Tuesday, 30^th of May, 2023.

They also emphasised, “Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.”

Sam Altman was present among the signatories whose company OpenAI develops the popular chatbot ChatGPT.

EU Proposal:

EU by taking AI as a Global Concern, tasked its officials to discuss proposals for an AI pact with executives including Google’s Sundar Pichai last week, and have held talks in Sweden this week with US representatives.

 

According to Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s tech chief, informed the reporters that the proper “Pact” is needed despite of EU plans to regulate AI.

She feared, “In the best of cases it will take effect in two and a half to three years time. That is obviously way too late,” and “We need to act now.”

She kept on saying, “If the two of us take the lead with close friends, I think we can push something that will make us all much more comfortable with the fact that generative AI is now in the world and is developing at amazing speeds.”

US Split in Government Department:

There is split in the US government departments on how to tackle AI on the grounds that some quarters of the White House concerned that cracking down on the technology would put US companies at a competitive disadvantage. Bloomberg reported.

(Courtesy: The Telegraph)