UK to hold conference of developers in Silicon Valley to discuss AI safety

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

The UK is to host a conference with leading artificial intelligence (AI) developers in Silicon Valley in November to discuss how to tackle the potential risks surrounding the technology.

The Government said the talks will focus on how AI firms plan to tackle concerns around the rise of AI, including if it falls into the hands of bad actors.

Earlier this year, at the AI Seoul Summit, a number of companies from around the world agreed to publish frameworks on tackling AI risk, as well as commitments to stop the deployment or development of AI models if they contain risks which cannot be addressed.

The new round of discussions in November will bring together researchers and policy representatives to discuss the issue of AI safety, the Government said.

The companies attending the event have not yet been confirmed.

It comes ahead of the next international AI summit – the AI Action Summit – in France in February next year.

“The conference is a clear sign of the UK’s ambition to further the shared global mission to design practical and effective approaches to AI safety,” Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said.

“We’re just months away from the AI Action Summit, and the discussions in San Francisco will give companies a clear focus on where and how they can bolster their AI safety plans building on the commitments they made in Seoul.”

The UK-led talks will follow a United States-hosted meeting of the International Network of AI Safety Institutes, which will also be held in San Francisco in the days before the UK’s conference in November.

The UK launched the world’s first AI Safety Institute during the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park last year, with a number of other countries – including the US – since launching their own institutes.

The summits so far have produced a range of voluntary agreements and declarations around global efforts to train and develop AI tools safely.

In addition, earlier this month, the UK joined the US and EU in signing the first, legally-binding, international treaty on the issue, which commits nations to protecting the public from potential dangers linked to the technology.