{"id":13896,"date":"2023-11-01T09:48:41","date_gmt":"2023-11-01T09:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1401109"},"modified":"2023-11-01T09:48:41","modified_gmt":"2023-11-01T09:48:41","slug":"bedazzled-by-big-tech-the-uks-ai-summit-is-overlooking-big-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=13896","title":{"rendered":"Bedazzled by big tech, the UK\u2019s AI summit is overlooking big issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

World leaders and tech titans are currently descending on southern England for an AI safety summit, but the flashy event isn\u2019t impressing everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the next two days, around 100 bigwigs will attend the event at the historic<\/span> Bletchley Park, a country estate a<\/span>round 90km north of London. During <\/span>World War Two, the site was home to the codebreakers who cracked Nazi Germany\u2019s notorious Enigma encryption device. Some 80 years later, the British government wants to show that the UK is still a tech superpower \u2014 but the plans have caused alarm.<\/span><\/p>\n

Critics have various concerns. They worry that the summit organisers are spellbound by \u201cfrontier AI<\/a>,\u201d famous names, and far-flung fears, while overlooking more pressing and inclusive issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

A show-stealing late addition to the schedule elevated their suspicions. On Monday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak revealed that he will be \u201cin conversation\u201d with Elon Musk<\/a> on X.<\/p>\n

Musk adds further lustre to a star-studded<\/span> guest list. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Among the invitees are several political heavyweights, including <\/span>US Vice President Kamala Harris, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and Chinese Vice Minister Wu Zhaohui. <\/span><\/p>\n

Also in attendance are various tech titans, such as Microsoft President Brad Smith, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Meta AI chief Yann LeCun. But the event is not for everyone.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cMy fear is that the summit will focus on headline-grabbing existential threats.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Much of the tech sector feels that only industry giants and political leaders will be seated at Sunak\u2019s conference table.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr Hector Zenil, the founder of healthcare startup Oxford Immune Algorithmics, is worried that the event will be dominated by generative AI and big tech. He has called on Sunak to <\/span>involve a greater balance of commercial and academic representation.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf the AI Safety Summit is to be judged a success \u2014 or at least on the right path to creating consensus on AI safety, regulation, and ethics \u2014 then the UK government must strive to create an even playing field for all parties to discuss the future use cases for the technology,\u201d Zenil said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Summit cannot be dominated by those corporations with a specific agenda and narrative around their commercial interests, otherwise this week\u2019s activities will be seen as an expensive and misleading marketing exercise.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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In conversation with @elonmusk<\/a>
After the AI Safety Summit
Thursday night on @x<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/kFUyNdGD7i<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Rishi Sunak (@RishiSunak) October 30, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Zenil\u2019s views are common across the sector. <\/span>Among the industry insiders who share his unease is Victor Botev, the CTO and co-founder of <\/span>Iris.ai<\/span><\/a>, an Oslo-based startup.<\/span><\/p>\n

A former AI researcher at Chalmers University and now a business leader, Botev wants broader representation from both academia and industry at the meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is vital for any consultation on AI regulation to include perspectives beyond just the tech giants,\u201d he said. \u201cSmaller AI firms and open-source developers often pioneer new innovations, yet their voices on regulation go unheard. The summit missed a great opportunity by only including 100 guests, who are primarily made up of world leaders and big tech companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Venture capitalists have raised similar concerns. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGoing forward, we also must have more voices for startups themselves. The AI safety<\/span> summit\u2019s focus on big tech, and shutting out of many in the AI startup community, is disappointing,\u201d said<\/span> Ekaterina<\/span> Almasque, General Partner at European VC <\/span>OpenOcean<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is vital that industry voices are included when shaping regulations that will directly impact technological development.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Frontier AI apocalypses<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The glitzy guestlist has been accompanied by a fittingly dramatic agenda. This combination, critics say, is a distraction from more pressing concerns.<\/span><\/p>\n

They note that the programme will exclusively focus on \u201cfrontier\u201d AI systems \u2014 a hazy term for advanced, general-purpose AI models. <\/span>In a recent government report, the term \u201cfrontier AI\u201d was applied almost entirely to large language models (LLMs) \u2014 particularly OpenAI\u2019s ChatGPT.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zenil suspects the focus has been<\/span> influenced by CEOs who are invested in this field. He wants the government to take a broader view.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is absolutely critical that the UK has a coherent strategy for AI that encompasses all aspects of the technology and different models. Above all, this is important because no one approach will become the \u2018silver bullet\u2019 for AI adoption,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the AI Summit at Bletchley Park and the AI advisory committee are dominated by individuals with a particular research or commercial focus for AI, then it will make it harder to develop regulatory frameworks which reflect all the potential use cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dr
<\/i><\/a>Zenil has also worked as a senior researcher for the government-funded Alan Turing Institute. Credit: Oxford Immune Algorithmics<\/span><\/figcaption>