Artificial intelligence: the United States, China and the EU sign a first global declaration on the risks of AI

“This historic declaration marks the start of a new global effort to build public trust in AI by ensuring it is safe,” praised British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on X (ex-Twitter) .

Faced with the potential of the most advanced models, such as the ChatGPT conversational robot, Bletchley’s declaration “shows that for the first time, the world is coming together to identify the problem and highlight its opportunities” underlined the British Minister of Technology Michelle Donelan at AFP.

This meeting “is not intended to lay the foundations for global legislation, it must serve to chart a path forward,” she clarified.

Two international summits on AI will follow, in South Korea then in France, she added from the emblematic code breaking center of the Second World War, where Alan Turing “cracked” that of the Enigma machine used by the Nazis.

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“Independent arbitrator”

For two days, political leaders, AI experts and tech giants gathered there at the initiative of the United Kingdom, which wants to take the lead in global cooperation on this technology.

American billionaire Elon Musk, who co-founded the pioneering company OpenAI in 2015, pleaded on Wednesday for an “independent arbiter” to be able to “sound the alarm if he has concerns” about developments in AI, one of the “greatest threats” facing humanity, he told the press at Bletchley Park.

The controversial boss of X (ex-Twitter), also head of Tesla and SpaceX, will speak with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday evening.

American Vice President Kamala Harris, who was giving a speech at the United States Embassy in London, also warned of the “existential threats” of AI, which could “endanger the very existence of Humanity”, and in the shorter term, democracies.

Kamala Harris, who will be present at Bletchley Park on Thursday, also announced the creation of an institute on the security of artificial intelligence in Washington, like the United Kingdom.

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“Behind closed doors”

Generative AI, capable of producing text, sounds or images on a simple request in a matter of seconds, has made exponential progress in recent years and the next generations of these models will appear by summer.

These technologies raise immense hopes for medicine or education, but could also destabilize societies, make it possible to manufacture weapons or escape human control, the British government has warned.

A few months before crucial elections such as the American presidential or British legislative elections, generative AI is raising fears of a surge of false content online, with sophisticated montages (“deepfake”) that are increasingly credible.

On Thursday, senior politicians are expected for the second day of the summit.

Among them, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the Secretary General of the UN Antonio Guterres or the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni – the only head of state or government of the G7 to make the trip.

The United Kingdom hopes to convince them to create a group of experts on AI based on the IPCC model for the climate.

The challenge is to be able to define safeguards without hindering innovation for AI laboratories and tech giants. The EU and the United States, unlike the United Kingdom, have chosen the path of regulation.

Last week, several companies such as OpenAI, Meta (Facebook) and DeepMind (Google) agreed to make public some of their AI security rules at the request of the United Kingdom.

In an open letter addressed to Rishi Sunak, around a hundred international organizations, experts and activists deplored that this summit was being held “behind closed doors”, dominated by tech giants and with limited access for civil society.

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