South Korea and Britain are set to co-host a global AI summit in Seoul this week, as the rapid pace of innovation since the inaugural AI summit in November last year presents governments with a host of new challenges.
According to a global AI safety report endorsed by experts from over 30 countries, potential risks such as large-scale labor market impacts, AI-enabled hacking or biological attacks, and loss of control over general-purpose AI are on the horizon. However, there is still debate about the likelihood of these risks.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will lead a virtual summit on Tuesday, amid growing calls for improved regulation of artificial intelligence. In an opinion article titled “Only global AI standards can stop a race to the bottom,” published in Britain’s i newspaper and South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo, Sunak and Yoon emphasized the need for global cooperation in shaping AI governance.
The scope of challenges has expanded since the November event, which was billed as the AI Safety Summit. The upcoming AI Seoul Summit will focus on three priorities: AI safety, innovation, and inclusion. Participating leaders, including those from the Group of Seven (G7) major powers, Singapore, and Australia, will discuss governance associated with AI use and aim to adopt an agreement.
The AI safety report released on Friday highlights a range of risks associated with AI, including existential threats to humanity, AI inequality, data scarcity, use of copyrighted material, and environmental impact due to the energy consumption of AI data centers.
At the previous summit, figures like Tesla’s Elon Musk and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman engaged with critics, and China co-signed the “Bletchley Declaration” on collectively managing AI risks with the United States and others. Musk expressed anticipation for the upcoming summit in response to Yoon’s announcement, although his participation remains uncertain.
Source: reuters.com
