What We Know About the New U.K. Government's Approach to AI

When the U.K. hosted the world's first AI Safety Summit last November, Rishi Sunak, the then Prime Minister, said the achievements at the event would "tip the balance in favor of humanity." At the two-day event, held in the cradle of modern computing, Bletchley Park, AI labs committed to share their models with governments before public release, and 29 countries pledged to collaborate on mitigating risks from artificial intelligence. It was part of the Sunak-led Conservative government's effort to position the U.K. as a leader in artificial intelligence governance, which also involved establishing the world's first AI Safety Institute--a government body tasked with evaluating models for potentially dangerous capabilities. While the U.S. and other allied nations subsequently set up their own similar institutes, the U.K. institute boasts 10 times the funding of its American counterpart. Eight months later, on July 5, after a landslide loss to the Labour Party, Sunak left office and the newly elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer began forming his new government.