Rishi Sunak draws up plans to police AI after meeting Google boss

2023-05-27

Rishi Sunak draws up plans for a rapid overhaul of regulations to police AI after meeting with the boss of Google

Rishi Sunak met with Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet
The PM also held talks with OpenAI boss Sam Altman, who created Chat GPT,

Rishi Sunak is drawing up plans for a rapid overhaul of regulations to control the growing impact of artificial intelligence after taking soundings from the boss of Google.

The Prime Minister yesterday met with Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google’s parent company Alphabet, to discuss the idea of an international agency to police AI’s rapid expansion as Mr Sunak looks to tighten the UK’s current regulations.

The PM believes the Government’s White Paper on AI, only published in March, is already out of date.

And he is under pressure from his own MPs to host an annual international summit on the issue to put Britain at the forefront of the response to policing the technology.

The PM believes the Government’s White Paper on AI, only published in March, is already out of date

Mr Sunak’s meeting with Mr Pichai at the Government’s Darlington Economic Campus comes after he held talks with OpenAI boss Sam Altman, whose company created Chat GPT, and other industry representatives on Wednesday.

Mr Sunak and the AI bosses have already acknowledged the technology carries ‘existential risks’ without effective new regulation. Google owns the DeepMind AI lab.

Following yesterday’s meeting, Downing Street said: ‘They discussed the UK’s strengths and ambitions in cementing its position as a science and technology superpower.

On AI, they spoke about striking the right balance to ensure the right regulatory guardrails are in place, whilst driving innovation.

They discussed opportunities… on safe and responsible AI development and agreed to remain in touch.’

Last month Mr Pichai said the threat AI poses to humanity ‘keeps me up at night’.

His fears were fuelled after his company’s new AI chatbot program Bard surprised its makers by learning Bangladeshi without training.

More than a thousand tech executives and academics in the US have called for an emergency pause to the ‘dangerous’ AI arms race.

The Prime Minister yesterday met with Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google’s parent company Alphabet, to discuss the idea of an international agency to police AI’s rapid expansion

Mr Sunak’s held talks with OpenAI boss Sam Altman, whose company created Chat GPT, and other industry representatives on Wednesday

Twitter boss Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak were among the co-signatories of an open letter demanding a six-month pause to AI systems such as ChatGPT.

Mr Sunak first signalled a shift in the UK’s approach to AI at the G7 summit in Japan last week, when he said there should be ‘guardrails’ in place internationally to keep pace with the technology’s rapid expansion.

This marked a change in tone following March’s White Paper, which proposed that regulation of AI could be carried out by existing watchdogs.

Michael Gove and Security Minister Tom Tugendhat are both said to have concerns about the potential impact of AI.

Source: Read Full Article