Rishi Sunak wants to lead the world in AI. The world is not listening – POLITICO

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Artificial intelligence speaks out.

LONDON — Even if the tech world isn’t convinced by his qualities, he’s a prime minister who’s cultivated the image of a ‘tech buddy’.

Now, Rishi Sunak wants to leverage its standard-setting as a soft power tool and market the UK as a leader in global AI governance, while boosting the UK’s emerging AI sector.

he may have a fight. Because Sunak, who is flying to Washington this week for his first White House summit as British prime minister, with the future of AI as his top priority, finds Britain already catching up on the world stage. Body.

The UK, which left the European Union in January 2020, has been barred from key forums between the EU and the US, such as the Technology and Trade Council (TTC), where AI governance plans are negotiated on a bilateral basis. Britain’s requests for a similar dialogue with Washington have been repeatedly denied, forcing Mr. Sunak to pursue direct routes such as Thursday’s White House meeting with US President Joe Biden.

Central to Sunak’s grand plan is to host an international AI summit this fall. The summit will convene like-minded allies in London to discuss technology risks and how best to regulate them, two Whitehall officials and a government adviser told POLITICO.This idea was brought to the prime minister Downing Street roundtable in late May, where top leaders from OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Anthropic gather.

Sunak also expressed interest in the UK hosting a global oversight body on AI similar to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an intergovernmental body promoting the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The AI ​​equivalent of the IAEA is an idea previously put forward by Sam Altman of OpenAI.

“CERN for AI” is also one of Sunak’s proposals, aimed at establishing an international research institute similar to what exists in international particle physics. Sunak plans to showcase all three ideas when he meets with Biden this week.

Whether Biden is ready to listen remains to be seen.

Following last week’s 4th TTC meeting, the EU, US and Canada have already agreed to develop a national AI code of conduct. The voluntary agreement will be presented to the rest of the G7, including the United Kingdom, at the upcoming autumn meeting in Japan, which holds the G7 presidency this year.

Britain’s AI offensive therefore seeks to carve out a leadership role for technology outside the TTC, said the UK government adviser quoted above.

The 10th wants to create an influential forum that includes not only the US and EU27 countries, but also other unrepresented countries with advanced AI industries such as Japan and South Korea.

The UK believes that the EU and US are already building a system, stating that “our role is to be a mediator or amplifier and also a spokesperson for third countries outside these two blocs, mostly outside of these two blocs. It will involve parties,” the adviser added. The UK government has said it wants to walk between a more assertive EU approach, with AI legislation expected to come into force in the next few years, and a relatively non-interventional US stance.

The adviser said Japan and Canada have backed the UK’s summit ambitions, but plans were still far from advanced.

change in rhetoric

The UK’s massive push for AI didn’t always come for granted. A government adviser said Mr Sunak chose artificial intelligence from a list provided by officials who set out a list of cutting-edge technologies on which Britain could play a leading role in setting international standards. The list also included “semiconductors” and “space,” but was ultimately rejected.

All of this represents a notable change from April, when the UK government released its AI White Paper amid much touted for its ‘promoting innovation’ and light-touch approach.

Instead of creating a dedicated regulator to deal with AI, as some expected, the white paper advocates for existing regulators to incorporate AI into their mandates where appropriate. ing.

But a few months later, the global outlook for AI looks pretty bleak. Few days go by without AI experts issuing devastating warnings about the technology’s potential impact, and AI companies themselves have voiced their desire for regulation.

The UK’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) now meets weekly with ministers, the department’s permanent secretary and other officials to discuss the technology.At number 10, Sunak’s closest aides, Chief of Staff Liam Booth-Smith and Deputy Chief of Staff Will Tanner, are said to be currently heavily involved in the matter..

Unlike the 10th most late joiner to the party on AI, other branches of British government agencies, most notably the Alan Turing Institute. Funded primarily from London, the institute has earned a global reputation for evidence-based research on thorny issues. Like the ethics of AI, it is closely related to the ethics of AI around the world.

As concerns grow, the UK government has become more cautious in its statements. Still, many experts suggest that AI whitepapers do not adequately address the risks posed by underlying models like his GPT-4, and that further regulation dealing directly with generative AI is probably needed. I’m here.

An industry representative told POLITICO that public officials no longer seemed to be pushing the vision contained in the white paper and that a sense of chaos was pervasive around the issue.

Despite this, government officials continue to argue that there is no need for a major update to the AI ​​white paper. The senior government official quoted above told POLITICO that the only real change in recent weeks was the emphasis on “risk assessment” from “promoting innovation”.

Other industry representatives who work with governments agree that it is unlikely that any new regulation will be created at this stage, but they expect existing regulators to have more tools and funding. some people do.

inside the surgery

Whoever the government chooses to head the AI ​​Task Force will play a leading role in solving the question of how the UK will govern AI. Matt Clifford, who is also ARIA chairman, is now the interim chairman and the number 10 preferred candidate, another government official told POLITICO.

Clifford represents a “tech-savvy version of number 10,” a third industry executive told POLITICO. Next to him is Nitarshan Rajkumar, a PhD student at Cambridge University who joined DSIT in April as policy adviser on artificial intelligence.

Britain’s special envoy for technology, Joe White, is busy spreading the message to Silicon Valley companies that the UK wants to find a way between the EU’s hardline approach and the US’s no-intervention stance. Britain’s intention is to sign its light-touch approach in hopes of luring the United States as a powerful economic bloc and cementing the United States as the international standard.

It remains to be seen whether the UK will be able to have a meaningful voice on the issue from a non-EU perspective. This week’s visit to Washington will give Snak a chance to prove he can do it.

Mark Scott and Brendan Bordelon contributed to the report.



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