As we meet here this evening, millions of people in Morocco and Libya continue to struggle with the aftermath of a devastating earthquake and catastrophic flood. Let me extend the sympathy of the British people to all those who have lost loved ones. Our search-and-rescue teams have been deployed in Morocco, and we have increased our humanitarian support for Libya. We will continue our support, alongside many other nations represented here, in the weeks and months to come.
This week, nations have gathered here to recommit to addressing the biggest challenges we face: climate change, with catastrophic weather events telling us to act now; the Sustainable Development Goals and how to get them back on track after the coronavirus disease; migration, with millions crossing borders and dangerous seas, at the mercy of human traffickers; and Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. The latter was an attack on a sovereign Member of the United Nations by a permanent member of the Security Council — the most heinous assault imaginable on everything that the Organization stands for and was founded to prevent. with consequences felt, not just by the brave people of Ukraine, but by millions across the globe. Those hit by food shortages, particularly in developing countries, are Putin’s victims too. Russia could end this war tomorrow. Putin could end this war tomorrow. That is what the world demands. But until that happens, the United Kingdom will stand alongside Ukraine. It will do whatever it takes for weeks, for months or. if necessary, for years, because if the United Nations, in which the United Kingdom believes and helped to found, is to count for anything it is surely for the cardinal principle that aggression cannot and must not pay.
Those are the issues of the moment. But I want to focus on another challenge, a challenge that is already with us today and that is changing right now all of our tomorrows. It is going to change everything we do — education, business, health care, defence and the way we live. And it is going to change Government and relations among nations fundamentally. It is going to change the United Nations fundamentally. Artificial intelligence (AI) is the biggest transformation the world has known. Our task as Governments is to understand it. grasp it and seek to govern it. and we must do so at speed. Think how much has changed in a few short months, and then think how different the world will look in five years’ or ten years’ time.
We are fast becoming familiar with the AI of today, but we need to prepare for the AI of tomorrow. At this frontier, we need to accept that we simply do not know the bounds of possibilities. We are as Edison was before the light came on or as Tim Berners-Lee was before the first email was sent. They could not surely have respectively envisaged the illumination of the New York skyline at night or the wonders of the modern Internet, but they suspected the transformative power of their inventions. Frontier AI. with the capacity to process the entirety of human knowledge in seconds, has the potential not just to transform our lives, but to reimagine our understanding of science. If. like me. Member States believe that humans are on the path to decoding the mysteries of the smallest particles or the farthest reaches of our universe, if Member States think that the Millennium Prize Problems are ultimately solvable or that we will eventually fully understand viruses, then Member States will surely agree that, by adding to the sum total of our intelligence at potentially dizzying scales, frontier AI will unlock at least some of those answers on an expedited timetable in our lifetimes.
Because in AI time, years are days, even hours. The frontier is not as far away as we might assume. That brings with it great opportunities. The AI models being developed today could deliver the energy efficiency needed to beat climate change, stimulate the crop yields required to feed the world, detect signs of chronic diseases or pandemics and better manage supply chains so everyone has access to the materials and goods they need and enhance productivity in both businesses and Governments. In fact, every single challenge discussed at this year’s General Assembly and more could be improved or even solved by AI
Perhaps the most exciting thing is that AI can be a democratizing tool open to everyone. Just as we have seen digital adoption sweep across the developing world. AI has the potential to empower millions of people in every part of our planet, giving everyone, wherever they are. the ability to be part of this revolution. AI can and should be a tool for all. Yet any technology that can be used by all can also be used for ill. We have already seen the dangers AI can pose: teens hacking individuals’ bank details, terrorists targeting Government systems, cybercriminals duping voters with deepfakes and bots. even States suppressing their peoples. But our focus on the risks has to include the potential of agentic frontier AI. which at once surpasses our collective intelligence and defies our understanding. Indeed, many argue that the technology is like no other in the sense that its creators themselves do not even know how it works. They cannot explain why it does what it does, and they cannot predict what it will or will not do. The principal risks of frontier AI will therefore come from misuse, misadventure or misalignment with human objectives. Our efforts need to pre-empt those possibilities and to come together to agree a shared understanding of those risks. That is what the Al summit that the United Kingdom is hosting in November will seek to achieve.
Despite the entreaties we saw from some experts earlier in the year. I do not believe we can hold back the tide. There is no future in which that technology does not develop at an extraordinary pace. And although I applaud leading companies’ efforts to put safety at the heart of their development and their voluntary commitments that provide guardrails against unsafe deployment, the starting gun has been fired on a globally competitive race in which individual companies, as well as countries, will strive to push the boundaries as far and fast as possible. Indeed, the stated aim of those companies is to build superintelligence. AI that strives to surpass intelligence in every possible way. Some people working on that think it is just a few years away.
The question for Governments is how we respond to that. The speed and scale demand that leaders be clear- eyed about the implications and potential. We cannot afford to become trapped in debates about whether AI is a tool for good or a tool for ill; it will be a tool for both. We must prepare for both and insure against the latter. The international community must devote its response equally to the opportunities and the risks and do so with both vigour and enthusiasm.
In the past, leaders have responded to scientific and technological developments with retrospective regulation. But in this instance the necessary guardrails, regulation and governance must be developed in a parallel process with the technological progress. Yet. at the moment, global regulation is falling behind current advances. Lawmakers must draw in everyone — developers, experts and academics — to understand in advance the sort of opportunities and risks that might be presented. We must be frontier Governments alongside frontier innovators.
The United Kingdom is determined to be in the vanguard, working with like-minded allies in the United Nations and through the Group of Seven’s Hiroshima AI Process, the Global Partnership on AI and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Our country is uniquely placed. We have the frontier technology companies; we have world-leading universities; and we have some of the highest investment in generative artificial intelligence (AI). And. of course, we have the heritage of the Industrial Revolution and the computing revolution. This hinterland gives us the grounding to make AI a success and make it safe. They are two sides of the same coin, and our Prime Minister has put AI safety at the forefront of his ambitions.
We recognize that while, of course, every nation will want to protect its own interests and strategic advantage, the most important actions we will take will be international. In fact, because tech companies and non-State actors often have country-sized influence and prominence in AI. that challenge requires a new form of multilateralism — because it is only by working together that we will make AI safe for everyone. Our first ever AI summit, in November, will kick-start that process, with a focus on frontier technology.
In particular, we want to look at the most serious possible risks, such as the potential to undermine biosecurity or increase the ability of people to carry out cyberattacks, as well as the danger of losing control of the machines themselves. For those that say that those warnings are sensationalist or belong to the realm of science-fiction. I simply point to the words of hundreds of AI developers, experts and academics, who have said: “[m]itigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks, such as pandemics and nuclear war.”
I do not stand here this evening claiming to be an expert on AI. but I do believe that policymakers and Governments ignore this expert consensus at the peril of all of our citizens. Our summit will aim to reach a common understanding of those most extreme risks and how the world should confront them and. at the same time, focus on how safe AI can be used for public good.
The speed of its progress demands that this cannot be a one-off or even an annual gathering. New breakthroughs are happening daily, and we will need to convene more regularly.
Moreover, it is essential that we bring Governments together with the best academics and researchers to be able to evaluate technologies. Technology companies must not mark their own homework, just as Governments and citizens must have confidence that risks are being properly mitigated. Indeed, a large part of this work should be about ensuring faith in the system, and it is only nation States that can provide reassurance that the most significant national security concerns have been allayed.
That is why I am so proud that the United Kingdom’s world-leading Frontier AI Taskforce has brought together pioneering experts like Yoshua Bengio and Paul Christiano, with the head of the Government Communications Headquarters and our national security advisers. It is the first body of its kind in the world that is developing the capacity to conduct the safe external red-teaming that will be critical to building confidence in frontier models. And our ambition is for the Taskforce to evolve to become a permanent institutional structure, with an international offer.
Building that capacity in liberal, democratic countries is important. Many world-beating technologies were developed in nations where expression flows openly and ideas are exchanged freely. A culture of rules and transparency is essential to creativity and innovation, and it is just as essential to making Al safe.
That is the task that confronts us. It is — in its speed, scale and potential — unlike anything we or our predecessors have known before. It is exciting, daunting and inexorable. So we must work, alongside its pioneers, to understand it. to govern it. to harness its potential and to contain its risks. We will have to be pioneers too. We may not know where the risks lie. how we might contain them or even the forums in which we must determine them. What we do know, however, is that the most powerful action will come when nations work together.
The AI revolution will be a bracing test for the multilateral system, to show that it can work together on a question that will define the fate of humankind. Our future, humankind’s future and our entire planet’s future depends on our ability to do so. That is our challenge, and this is our opportunity to be. truly, the United Nations.