Trying to tame AI: Seoul summit flags hurdles to regulation

The Bletchley Park artificial intelligence summit in 2023 was a landmark event in AI regulation simply by virtue of its existence. Between the event's announcement and its first day, the mainstream conversation had changed from a tone of light bafflement to a general agreement that AI regulation may be worth discussing. However, the task for its follow-up, held at a research park on the outskirts of Seoul this week, is harder: can the UK and South Korea show that governments are moving from talking about AI regulation to actually delivering it? At the end of the Seoul summit, the big achievement the UK was touting was the creation of a global network of AI safety institutes, building on the British trailblazers founded after the last meeting. The technology secretary, Michelle Donelan, attributed the new institutes to the "Bletchley effect" in action, and announced plans to lead a system whereby regulators in the US, Canada, Britain, France, Japan, Korea, Australia, Singapore and the EU share information about AI models, harms and safety incidents.