UK’s Global AI Governance Summit: Symbolism Over Substance?
The UK government has been on a save-the-world tour, warning of the dangers of artificial superintelligence (AI). However, critics argue that the upcoming Global AI Governance Summit, scheduled for November 1 and 2, may not deliver meaningful outcomes. The flagship initiative of the summit is a voluntary global register of large AI models, which experts claim is toothless as it relies on the goodwill of US and Chinese tech companies. Moreover, there is frustration within the UK AI industry as leading companies and investors have not been invited to participate in discussions about the future of the industry. The focus of the summit on the potential risks of AI-driven cataclysm also disregards the immediate real-world risks and positive impacts of the technology.
Many in the UK AI industry argue that the government should instead focus on supporting British AI companies to compete amid rapid change and significant AI investment. Presently, a handful of companies, mostly American or Chinese, dominate the field of large AI models due to infrastructure ownership. The absence of British AI industry representation at the summit, apart from Google DeepMind, has triggered frustration as the UK is touted as the “AI center of the world.”
The UK government has committed over $1 billion in AI-related initiatives, but critics argue that this is not enough to compete with industry leaders in the US and Asia. Additionally, concerns have been raised about the government’s lack of domestic AI regulation, contrasting with moves by the US, EU, China, and Brazil to develop their own regulations. The absence of comprehensive AI regulation in the UK is seen as embarrassing and undermines the country’s influence in global AI development. Critics also question the rushed nature of the summit, speculating that it may be driven by domestic political motivations.
The summit is expected to propose an AI Safety Institute and a register of frontier models to assess potential risks. However, it is uncertain whether major US companies will commit to this new initiative and share valuable proprietary information. Overall, there are doubts about the summit’s effectiveness in driving international consensus on the most important AI risks and its ability to secure meaningful agreements that shape AI development.
