Frontier AI In Limelight As Rishi Sunak Prepares For Global AI Summit

Chatbots like ChatGPT left the world surprised with their ability to hold interesting conversations, plan vacations and write great or arguably even better speeches.

Now, frontier AI has become the latest buzzword as concerns grow over the emerging technology’s capabilities potentially endangering humanity.

Alarms have been raised over frontier AI’s as-yet-unknown dangers, with governments, businesses and researchers calling for safeguards to shield people from harm.

England To Host Summit Focused On Frontier AI

The raging debate comes to a head Wednesday, when British Prime Minister hosts a two-day global AI summit, welcoming a group of about 100 officials from 28 countries.

US Vice President Kamala Harris, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, among others, are expected to attend the discussions at Bletchley Park.

The venue is a former top secret base for WWII codebreakers led by Alan Turing. It is where the team cracked Nazi Germany’s Enigma code using the first digital programmable computer.

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Will AI Wipe Out Mankind?

According to Jeff Clune, an associate computer science professor at the University of British Columbia focusing on AI and machine learning, it’s far from certain that AI will wipe out mankind.

“But it has sufficient risk and chance of occurring. And we need to mobilise society’s attention to try to solve it now rather than wait for the worst-case scenario to happen.”

Clune was among a group of influential researchers who authored a paper last week calling for more government action to manage risks from artificial intelligence systems.

Showcasing The UK Has Not Become Isolated

The global AI Summit on Wednesday reflects the UK’s eagerness to host international gatherings to show it can still lead on the world stage after its departure from the EU.

However, sceptics say the British government has set its summit goals too low, given that focus will lie on establishing “guardrails” instead of on the regulation of AI.

In a speech last week, Sunak said only governments – and not AI companies – are capable of protecting people from the emerging technology’s existing and potential risks.