Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has likened the impact artificial intelligence can have to the industrial revolution and the internet but 聽warned about the technology being weaponised by terrorists.
In a far-reaching speech 聽on Thursday to The Royal Society, Sunak announced he would establish the world’s first AI safety institute in the UK but stressed there would be no rush to regulate.
Speaking ahead of the world鈥檚 first ever Global AI Safety Summit next week, at Bletchley Park, he said people didn鈥檛 need to be 鈥榣osing sleep鈥� about AI.
The pro-technology PM said artificial intelligence could improve healthcare outcomes, boost productivity and tackle crime.
鈥淛ust this morning, I was at Moorfields Eye Hospital,鈥� he told the audience. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e using artificial intelligence to build a model that can look at a single picture of your eyes and not only diagnose blindness, but predict heart attacks, strokes, or Parkinson鈥檚.
鈥淚 genuinely believe that technologies like AI will bring a transformation as far-reaching as the industrial revolution, the coming of electricity, or the birth of the internet.
鈥淎I will bring new knowledge new opportunities for economic growth, new advances in human capability and the chance to solve problems that we once thought beyond us.鈥�
However Sunak promised to tackle people鈥檚 fears 鈥榟ead-on鈥� and took the unusual step of publishing the government鈥檚 analysis on the risks of AI, including an assessment by the UK intelligence communities.
He said: 鈥淭hese reports provide a stark warning. Get this wrong, and AI could make it easier to build chemical or biological weapons.
鈥淭errorist groups could use AI to spread fear and destruction on an even greater scale.
Rishi Sunak makes safe AI pledge amid 鈥榞reatest opportunity鈥�
鈥淐riminals could exploit AI for cyber-attacks, disinformation, fraud, or even child sexual abuse.
鈥淎nd in the most unlikely but extreme cases, there is even the risk that humanity could lose control of AI completely through the kind of AI sometimes referred to as 鈥榮uper intelligence鈥�.鈥�
Despite these fears Sunak said he chose innovation over regulation when it came to AI.
鈥淭he UK鈥檚 answer is not to rush to regulate,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his is a point of principle 鈥� we believe in innovation, it鈥檚 a hallmark of the British economy so we will always have a presumption to encourage it, not stifle it.
鈥淚nstead, we鈥檙e building world-leading capability to understand and evaluate the safety of AI models within government. To do that, we鈥檝e already invested 拢100m in a new taskforce, more funding for AI safety than any other country in the world.
鈥淲e will establish the world鈥檚 first AI Safety Institute 鈥� right here in the UK. It will advance the world鈥檚 knowledge of AI safety. And it will carefully examine, evaluate, and test new types of AI so that we understand what each new model is capable of, exploring all the risks, from social harms like bias and misinformation, through to the most extreme risks of all.鈥�
Sunak also spoke about the importance of next week鈥檚 Global AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park and defended the decision to invite China, despite criticism from her predecessor Liz Truss
鈥淭here are some who will say they should have been excluded,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut there can be no serious strategy for AI without at least trying to engage all of the world鈥檚 leading AI powers.
鈥淭hat might not have been the easy thing to do, but it was the right thing to do.鈥�
The Prime Minister called for an 鈥榠nternational approach to safety鈥� but said putting the UK at the forefront of this would 聽result in more jobs and investment.
鈥淲e鈥檙e investing almost a billion pounds in a supercomputer thousands of times faster than the one you have at home,鈥� he said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 why we鈥檙e investing 拢2.5bn in quantum computers, which can be exponentially quicker than those computers still.
鈥淭o understand this, consider how Google鈥檚 Sycamore quantum computer can solve a maths problem in 200 seconds, that would take the world鈥檚 fastest supercomputer 10,000 years.鈥�
He finished on an upbeat note about the potential good that AI could do.
鈥淩ight across the western world, we鈥檙e searching for answers to the question of how we can improve and increase our productivity because that鈥檚 the only way over the long-term to grow our economy and raise people鈥檚 living standards,鈥� to told the audience.
鈥淎nd in a million different ways, across every aspect of our lives, AI can be that answer.
鈥淚n the public sector, we鈥檙e clamping down on benefit fraudsters and using AI as a co-pilot to help clear backlogs and radically speed up paperwork.
鈥淚n the private sector, start-ups like Robin AI are revolutionising the legal profession writing contracts in minutes, saving businesses and customers time and money.
鈥淎I can help us solve some of the greatest social challenges of our time.
鈥淚t can help us finally achieve the promise of nuclear fusion, providing abundant, cheap, clean energy with virtually no emissions.
鈥淚t can help us solve world hunger, by making food cheaper and easier to grow and preventing crop failures by accurately predicting when to plant, harvest or water your crops.
鈥淣ow I believe nothing in our foreseeable future will be more transformative for our economy, our society, and all our lives, than this technology.鈥�