Leaders from around the globe gathered at a summit on safety and unanimously recognized the need to address potential risks associated with the rapid development of artificial intelligence.
The first-ever AI Safety Summit, organized by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at Bletchley Park in England, commenced on Wednesday with representatives from 28 countries, including the USA and China. The leaders have pledged to collaborate towards a mutual understanding and accountability regarding the risks of AI, and have scheduled additional meetings to take place later this year in South Korea and France.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States, António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, and other leaders shared their respective testing methods to ensure the safety of AI development.
The summit carried on into Thursday, with concentrated discussions among a select group of countries identified by the U.K. as having common values. The participants in this group included representatives from the European Union, United Nations, Italy, Germany, France, and Australia.
Several leaders, such as Sunak, have expressed that implementing immediate and broad regulations is not the best approach. Additionally, some AI companies have expressed concerns that regulation may hinder the technology’s ability to reach its maximum potential.
During a press conference on Thursday, Sunak revealed a significant new agreement among nations to collaborate on evaluating the safety of upcoming AI models prior to their release.
The participants in the negotiations were the United States, European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Canada, and Australia. China was absent on the second day of discussions.
In London on November 2, 2023, Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of Britain, participated in a dialogue with Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. The discussion was centered around AI and took place on the social media platform X, which is owned by Musk.
The meeting ended with a conversation between Sunak and billionaire Elon Musk in the presence of a select group of business leaders and reporters.
Musk commended the decision to include China in the agreement for AI safety, despite criticism of Western governments for scaling back tech collaboration with China. He emphasized the significance of the U.S., U.K., and China collaborating to advance AI safety.
The online broadcast of Sunak and Musk’s conversation was set for later on Thursday.
The Associated Press and Reuters provided some of the information in this report.
Source: voanews.com
