The rapid development of AI could leave governments and regulators unable to safely manage it, Britain’s deputy prime minister has said.
In a speech set to be delivered to the UN General Assembly in New York, Oliver Dowden will warn that the desire for countries to ramp up their AI capabilities quickly will cause regulators to fall behind.
“The starting gun has been fired on a globally competitive race in which individual companies as well as countries will strive to push the boundaries as far and fast as possible,” Dowden will say.
Dowden is expected to warn that while previous technological developments have been managed with “retrospective regulation”, the rapid advances in AI put regulatory systems at risk of falling dangerously out of date and therefore requires a different approach.
“In this instance the necessary guardrails, regulation and governance must be developed in a parallel process with the technological progress. Yet, at the moment, global regulation is falling behind current advances.”
Dowden’s comments come as the UK prepares to host the first international AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in November.
The summit will see world leaders and a handful of representatives from the tech industry convene to discuss how to safely manage the growth of AI.
Oseloka Obiora, CTO of the cybersecurity firm RiverSafe told UKTN: “Business leaders are jumping into bed with the latest AI trends at an alarming rate, with little or no concern for the consequences.
“With global regulatory standards falling way behind and the most basic cyber security checks being neglected, it is right for the government to call for new global standards to prevent the AI ticking timebomb from exploding.”