GovWire

Watch the Prime Ministers speech on AI.

Im delighted to be here at the Royal Society, the place where the story of modern science has been written for centuries.

Now, Im unashamedly optimistic about the power of technology to make life better for everyone.

So, the easy speech for me to give - the one in my heart I really want to give

would be to tell you about the incredible opportunities before us.

Just this morning, I was at Moorfields Eye Hospital.

Theyre 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 Parkinsons.

And thats just the beginning.

I 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.

Now, as with every one of those waves of technology, AI 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.

But like those waves, it also brings new dangers and new fears.

So, the responsible thing for me to do the right speech for me to make is to address those fears head on

giving you the peace of mind that we will keep you safe

while making sure you and your children have all the opportunities for a better future that AI can bring.

Now, doing the right thing, not the easy thing, means being honest with people about the risks from these technologies.

So, I wont hide them from you.

Thats why today, for the first time, weve taken the highly unusual step

of publishing our analysis on the risks of AI

including an assessment by the UK intelligence communities.

These reports provide a stark warning.

Get this wrong, and AI could make it easier to build chemical or biological weapons.

Terrorist groups could use AI to spread fear and destruction on an even greater scale.

Criminals could exploit AI for cyber-attacks, disinformation, fraud, or even child sexual abuse.

And 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 super intelligence.

Indeed, to quote the statement made earlier this year by hundreds of the worlds leading AI experts:

Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.

Now, I want to be completely clear:

This is not a risk that people need to be losing sleep over right now.

I dont want to be alarmist.

And there is a real debate about this - some experts think it will never happen at all.

But however uncertain and unlikely these risks are, if they did manifest themselves, the consequences would be incredibly serious.

And when so many of the biggest developers of this technology themselves warn of these risks

leaders have a responsibility to take them seriously, and to act.

And that is what I am doing today in three specific ways.

First, keeping you safe.

Right now, the only people testing the safety of AI

are the very organisations developing it.

Even they dont always fully understand what their models could become capable of.

And there are incentives in part, to compete to build the best models, quickest.

So, we should not rely on them marking their own homework, as many of those working on this would agree.

Not least because only governments can properly assess the risks to national security.

And only nation states have the power and legitimacy to keep their people safe.

The UKs answer is not to rush to regulate.

This is a point of principle we believe in innovation, its a hallmark of the British economy

so we will always have a presumption to encourage it, not stifle it.

And in any case, how can we write laws that make sense for something we dont yet fully understand?

So, instead, were building world-leading capability to understand and evaluate the safety of AI models within government.

To do that, weve already invested 100m in a new taskforce

more funding for AI safety than any other country in the world.

And weve recruited some of the most respected and knowledgeable figures in the world of AI.

So, Im completely confident in telling you the UK is doing far more than other countries to keep you safe.

And because of this because of the unique steps weve already taken were able to go even further today.

I can announce that we will establish the worlds first AI Safety Institute right here in the UK.

It will advance the worlds 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.

The British people should have peace of mind that were developing the most advanced protections for AI of any country in the world.

Doing whats right and whats necessary to keep you safe.

But AI does not respect borders.

So we cannot do this alone.

Thesecondpart of our plan is to host the worlds first ever Global AI Safety Summit next week, at Bletchley Park the iconic home of computer science.

Were bringing together the worlds leading representatives

from Civil Society

to the companies pioneering AI

and the countries most advanced in using it.

And yes weve invited China.

I know there are some who will say they should have been excluded.

But there can be no serious strategy for AI without at least trying to engage all of the worlds leading AI powers.

That might not have been the easy thing to do, but it was the right thing to do.

So, what do we hope to achieve at next weeks Summit?

Right now, we dont have a shared understanding of the risks that we face.

And without that, we cannot hope to work together to address them.

Thats why we will push hard to agree the first ever international statement about the nature of these risks.

Yet AI is developing at breath taking speed.

Every new wave will become more advanced, better trained, with better chips, and more computing power.

So we need to make sure that as the risks evolve, so does our shared understanding.

I believe we should take inspiration from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

which was set up to reach an international scientific consensus.

So, next week, I will propose that we establish a truly global expert panel

nominated by the countries and organisations attending

to publish a State of AI Science report.

Of course, our efforts also depend on collaboration with the AI companies themselves.

Uniquely in the world, those companies have already trusted the UK with privileged access to their models.

Thats why the UK is so well-placed to create the worlds first Safety Institute.

And at next weeks Summit I will work together with the companies and countries to deepen our partnerships.

My vision, and our ultimate goal, should be to work towards a more international approach to safety

where we collaborate with partners to ensure AI systems are safe before they are released.

And so to support this, we will make the work of our Safety Institute available to the world.

Thats the right thing to do morally, in keeping with the UKs historic role on the international stage.

And its also the right thing economically, for families and businesses up and down the country.

Because the future of AI is safe AI.

And by making the UK a global leader in safe AI, we will attract even more of the new jobs and investment that will come from this new wave of technology.

Just think for a moment about what that will mean for our country.

The growth it will catalyse, the jobs it will create, the change it can deliver for the better.

And thats thethirdpart of our plan to make sure that everyone in our country can benefit from the opportunities of AI.

Weve already got strong foundations.

Third in the world for tech, behind only the US and China.

The best place in Europe to raise capital.

All of the leading AI companies - choosing the UK as their European headquarters.

The most pro-investment tax regime

The most pro-entrepreneur visa regime, to attract the worlds top talent

and the education reforms to give our own young people the skills to succeed.

And were going to make it even easier for ambitious people with big ideas to start, grow, and compete in the world of AI.

Thats not just about having the technical skills, but the raw computing power.

Thats why were investing almost a billion pounds in a supercomputer thousands of times faster than the one you have at home.

And its why were investing 2.5bn in quantum computers, which can be exponentially quicker than those computers still.

To understand this, consider how Googles Sycamore quantum computer

can solve a maths problem in 200 s

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