World News | British PM Rishi Sunak to Host AI Summit at World War II Enigma Code-break Site
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will host the world's first artificial intelligence (AI) safety summit of international governments, leading tech companies and experts at the iconic Bletchley Park site where the Enigma code-break helped turn the tide of World War II, the British government announced on Thursday.
London, Aug 24 (PTI) Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will host the world's first artificial intelligence (AI) safety summit of international governments, leading tech companies and experts at the iconic Bletchley Park site where the Enigma code-break helped turn the tide of World War II, the British government announced on Thursday.
The AI Safety Summit, plans for which were announced by Sunak earlier, has now been confirmed for November 1 and 2 at the Buckinghamshire site in south-east England. It is seen as an effort by the British Indian leader to pitch the UK as a leader in futuristic tech and will focus on the risks of AI, especially at the frontier of development, and discuss how they can be mitigated through internationally coordinated action.
"The UK has long been home to the transformative technologies of the future, so there is no better place to host the first ever global AI safety summit than at Bletchley Park this November,” said Sunak.
"To fully embrace the extraordinary opportunities of artificial intelligence, we must grip and tackle the risks to ensure it develops safely in the years ahead. With the combined strength of our international partners, thriving AI industry and expert academic community, we can secure the rapid international action we need for the safe and responsible development of AI around the world,” he said.
The UK government said frontier AI models hold enormous potential to power economic growth, drive scientific progress and wider public benefits, while also posing potential safety risks if not developed responsibly. Therefore, the summit will work towards coordinated action to agree on a set of rapid, targeted measures for furthering safety in global AI use.
"International collaboration is the cornerstone of our approach to AI regulation, and we want the summit to result in leading nations and experts agreeing on a shared approach to its safe use,” said UK Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan.
"The UK is consistently recognised as a world leader in AI and we are well placed to lead these discussions. The location of Bletchley Park as the backdrop will reaffirm our historic leadership in overseeing the development of new technologies. AI is already improving lives from new innovations in healthcare to supporting efforts to tackle climate change, and November's summit will make sure we can all realise the technology's huge benefits safely and securely for decades to come,” she said.
It was at Bletchley Park that celebrated British mathematician Alan Turing's team is said to have clinched the Enigma code around eight decades ago, laying the foundations for computing and computer science in the country. Enigma was the device used by Nazi Germany to encode strategic messages during World War II and once cracked, it helped the Allied forces counter Germany more effectively.
"It is fitting that the very spot where leading minds harnessed emerging technologies to influence the successful outcome of World War II will, once again, be the crucible for international coordinated action,” said Iain Standen, CEO of the Bletchley Park Trust.
The announcement follows the UK government allocating GBP 13 million to revolutionise healthcare research through AI last week. The funding supports a raft of new projects including transformations to brain tumour surgeries, new approaches to treating chronic nerve pain, and a system to predict a patient's risk of developing future health problems based on existing conditions.
Downing Street said the UK boasts strong credentials as a world leader in AI, employing over 50,000 people in the sector and directly supporting one of Sunak's key priorities of economic growth by contributing GBP 3.7 billion to the economy.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)