LONDON (AFP) – United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said yesterday that governments must be “honest” about the risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI), as he prepares to host a global summit on the issue in Britain next week.
In a speech in London, Sunak said while AI could bring opportunities for economic growth and the chance to solve problems that were once thought to be “beyond us”, it would also raise “new dangers and new fears”.
“The responsible thing for me to do is to address those fears head on, giving you the peace of mind that we will keep you safe, while making sure you and your children have all the opportunities for a better future that AI can bring,” he said.
“Doing the right thing, not the easy thing, means being honest with people about the risks from these technologies.”
Sunak’s speech comes ahead of a two-day international gathering starting next Wednesday at Bletchley Park, central England, where top British codebreakers cracked Nazi Germany’s “Enigma” code.
Bringing together world leaders, experts and others, it aims to “build a shared global understanding of the risks” posed by AI, according to Sunak’s office.
During his speech, he announced that Britain would create an AI Safety Institute to examine and test new types of AI and explore its risks, including social harms like bias and misinformation.
The only people currently testing the safety of AI are the organisations developing it, Sunak noted. They should not be relied on to “mark their own homework”, he said.
