AI: Opportunity or Threat?

It’s been quite a week for the UK. 

The AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park was a two-day event that brought together world leaders, tech executives and AI experts to discuss the potential risks and benefits of AI, and how to ensure that it is developed and used safely and ethically.

You’ll be familiar with our own views on global governance and concerns for how we can ensure safe AI adoption by countries around the world, so this summit was to be commended.

It covered a wide range of topics, including:

• the potential for AI to be used for malicious purposes, such as autonomous weapons and disinformation campaigns

• the need for AI systems to be transparent and accountable

• the importance of ensuring that AI is used to benefit all of humanity, not just a select few

Oversight, collaboration and governance in the use of AI in our global society

Also discussed was the need for global oversight, collaboration and governance in the use of AI given its potential to impact people all over the world.

Attendees agreed that it is important for countries to work together to develop and implement common standards and regulations for AI, to ensure it’s used safely and ethically for all. 

And they discussed the importance of international collaboration on AI research: by working together, scientists and engineers will develop new ways to ensure that AI systems are safe and reliable.

Consensus on where AI can most help humanity (and where it shouldn’t)

Consensus seems to have been reached in a number of areas where AI can most help humanity, including:

• Healthcare: AI can be used to develop new drugs and treatments, diagnose diseases more accurately and provide personalised care to patients

• Education: AI can be used to create personalised learning experiences for students, identify students who need extra help and provide real-time feedback to teachers

• Climate change: AI can be used to develop new ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, monitor the environment and adapt to the effects of climate change.

• Poverty and hunger: AI can be used to develop new agricultural methods, improve food distribution networks and provide financial assistance where support is needed

And where there was consensus on the use of AI for good, so too was there agreement on the limits of AI for society. The potential harms of AI they discussed included:

• Autonomous weapons: AI should not be used to develop autonomous weapons systems that could kill without human intervention

• Mass surveillance: AI should not be used to create mass surveillance systems that could track and monitor people's every move

• Job displacement: AI may displace millions of workers, leading to widespread unemployment and social unrest

• Bias and discrimination: AI systems could be biassed against certain groups of people, leading to discrimination in areas such as employment, housing and criminal justice

To limit and control the bad use of AI, the summit agreed that globally countries and businesses must:

• Invest in AI safety research, to ensure that AI systems are safe and reliable

• Develop and implement AI ethics guidelines, to ensure that AI is used in a responsible and ethical manner

• Regulate AI to protect people from the potential harms of AI, while also promoting the development and use of AI for good. In particular, governments should develop regulations to govern the development and use of AI

The Bletchley Declaration

The summit was held at Bletchley Park, the historic site where British codebreakers cracked the Enigma code during World War II. The site's significance was not lost on the attendees, who recognised that AI has the potential to be just as transformative as the development of the first computers at Bletchley Park.

To that end, the summit agreed to the Bletchley Declaration, a statement signed by representatives from over 20 countries that commits them to working together to ensure the safe and responsible development of AI.

It’s a significant step forward in the global effort to promote AI safety and shows that the international community is aware of the potential risks of AI, and that it is committed to working together to mitigate those risks.

But the declaration is more than that: it’s a call to action for everyone who cares about the future of AI and who wants it to be developed and used safely and ethically, to:

1. Learn more about AI. The more people understand about AI, the better equipped they will be to make informed decisions about its development and use. Stay with us as we uncover more about AI across a range of subjects in the coming weeks. We’ll also let you know when we’ve produced our first introductory course into AI.
   

2. Support organisations that are working on AI safety. There are many organisations that are working to develop new ways to ensure that AI is safe and reliable. For instance OpenAI, which is famed for ChatGPT, has a Charter that guides every aspect of its work to ensure that it prioritises the development of safe and beneficial AI. Closer to home, the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute is a leading research centre conducting research on the long-term future of humanity, and one of its key areas of focus is AI safety.
   

3. Advocate for policies that promote responsible AI development. Become familiar with the UK government's AI strategy, which outlines the government's goals for the development and use of AI in the UK. Also follow the work of Parliament's Science and Technology Committee, which is responsible for scrutinising the government's AI strategy and other AI-related policies. And sign-up for public consultations on AI policy. 

By learning more about AI, supporting organisations that are working on AI safety, and advocating for policies that promote responsible AI development, we can all help to ensure that AI is used for good.

Further reading, listening or watching

If you're interested in diving deeper into the AI Safety Summit, we recommend:

• the Guardian's coverage of the summit highlights the growing concern among experts about the potential risks of AI, and the need for urgent action to ensure that AI is developed and used safely and ethically.

• Wired's coverage of the summit focuses on the technical challenges of AI safety, and the research that is being done to address them. Wired also reports on the ethical implications of AI, and the importance of developing AI in a way that benefits all of humanity.

• Nature's coverage of the summit is more academic in tone, and focuses on the latest research on AI safety. Nature also reports on the potential risks and benefits of AI, and the importance of international cooperation on AI safety.

And finally, we couldn’t go without mentioning this excellent summary of the issue of AI and regulation in the UK: watch columnist Camilla Cavendish on BBC Question Time call for a different kind of regulator for AI.

Until next week …..

Warren and Mark
Your curators of AI knowledge