02 Nov Nations and AI experts convene for first global AI Safety Summit

Leading AI nations, businesses, civil society and AI experts, from around the world, have convened at Bletchley Park in the UK on the 1st and 2nd November for the first-ever AI Safety Summit where they discussed the global future of AI and worked towards developing a shared understanding of its risks.

The UK’s Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan opened the event by welcoming an expert cast list before setting out the UK government’s vision for safety and security to be at the heart of advances in AI, to enable the enormous opportunities it will bring.

She discussed the importance of making progress on the talks which will pave the way for a safer world by identifying risks, opportunities and the need for international collaboration, before highlighting consensus on the scale, importance and urgency of AI opportunities and the necessity for mitigating frontier AI risks to unlock them.

The historic venue played host to the landmark two-day summit, which saw a small, but focused group comprising AI companies, civil society and independent experts gather around the table to kickstart urgent talks on the risks and opportunities posed by rapid advances in frontier AI – especially ahead of new models launching next year, whose capabilities may not be fully understood. The summit generated viewpoints and critical insights that will be utilised by the world stage as artificial intelligence is beginning to make its mark on the tech culture.