British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during a joint news conference with President Joe Biden in the East Room of the White House on June 8. He warned about artificial intelligence during a speech on Thursday. File Photo by Jemal Countess/UPI | License Photo
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Thursday warned about the danger of artificial intelligence, saying the technology could make it easier to build biological and chemical weapons and put the public in peril.
Sunak made the comments during a speech that followed a government report on the potential capabilities and risks of AI. He said there is a real fear that cybercriminals can gain access to sensitive areas and technology and exploit them or humans can lose control of it. Advertisement
“In the most unlikely but extreme cases, there is even the risk that humanity could lose control of AI completely through the kind of AI sometimes referred to as super intelligence,” Sunak said.
Britain is preparing to host the global AI Safety Summit next week, which will bring together countries and companies to talk about the remaining control of the technology. Sunak said China was one of the invitees.
“Now, I know there are some who will say that [China] should have been excluded,” Sunak said. “But there can be no serious strategy for AI without at least trying to engage all of the world’s leading AI powers,” Sunak said. Advertisement
Many of the world’s leading AI companies are located in the United States and China including DeepMind, which is owned by Alphabet. Some of the top universities in the tech field are also located in those two countries.
