As a permanent member of the UNSC, and current presidency holder for the month of July, the UK will today (July 18) chair the first ever briefing session on Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the UN Security Council.
Taking place in the Security Council Chamber in New York, the high-level briefing will discuss the potential implications of AI on international peace and security and how to promote its safe and responsible use.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly will chair the session, and invite remarks from António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, Jack Clark, co-founder of leading AI company Anthropic, and Professor Zeng Yi, director of the Brain-inspired Cognitive Intelligence Lab and co-director of the China-UK Research Center for AI Ethics and Governance.
During the session Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is expected to say: “No country will be untouched by AI, so we must involve and engage the widest coalition of international actors from all sectors.
“The UK is home to many of the world’s trail-blazing AI developers and foremost AI safety researchers. So this autumn the UK plans to bring world leaders together for the first major global summit on AI safety. Our shared goal will be to consider the risks of AI and decide how they can be reduced through coordinated action.
“Momentous opportunities – on a scale that we can barely imagine – lie before us. We must seize these opportunities and grasp the challenges of AI – including those for international peace and security – decisively, optimistically and from a position of global unity on essential principles.
“Rapid developments in AI technologies have the capacity to fundamentally transform our societies and the way we live and work. Global cooperation will be vital to ensure AI technologies and the rules governing their use are developed responsibly in a way that benefits society.”
Last month, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the UK will host the first major global summit on AI safety this Autumn. The summit will consider the risks of AI, particularly at the frontier of the technology, and discuss how they can be mitigated through internationally coordinated action. It will also provide a platform for countries to work together on further developing a shared approach to mitigate these risks.
The UK is a world leader in AI and well-placed to convene discussions on the future of AI, ranking third globally across several government metrics. The UK sector is estimated to contribute £3.7 billion in gross value added (GVA) to the UK economy and employ over 50,000 people, developing AI solutions across all sectors of the UK economy.
In 2016, the UK initiated an international discussion on AI principles with G7 counterparts, paving the way for the 2019 OECD AI Recommendations, and in 2020 the UK supported the launch of the Global Partnership on AI (GPAI), becoming a founding member.
Following the publication of the National AI Strategy in September 2021, the UK published the AI Regulation White Paper in March 2023, setting out a context-based, proportionate and adaptable approach to regulating AI.
Most recently, the UK has launched an expert Foundation Model Taskforce to drive forward the safe and reliable development of Foundation Models while seizing the extraordinary opportunities they present. The Taskforce is backed by an initial £100m of funding. A key focus for the Taskforce in the coming months will be taking forward cutting-edge safety research in the run up to the first global summit on AI safety to be hosted in the UK this autumn.
