WASHINGTON: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pushed on Wednesday (Jun 7) for a leading UK role in regulating the fast-growing field of artificial intelligence, on a visit to Washington where he is also highlighting unstinting support on Ukraine.
Sunak will meet President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday as the young Conservative leader mounts an often uphill battle to show the UK’s post-Brexit relevance.
The prime minister wants a future global AI regulator to be based in London, according to sources, arguing that Britain has the requisite expertise and tech sector.
“The UK is well placed to play a leadership role. Outside of the US, we are probably the leading AI nation amongst democratic countries. We have an ability to get regulation right to protect our citizens,” he told TalkTV.
Sunak rejected suggestions that Britain had a hard sell after its divorce from the European Union, which just last week held its own dialogue with the United States on an AI code of conduct.
He pointed to the presence of AI companies in Britain and said that he has been at the forefront of addressing the technology’s challenges since his time as chancellor of the exchequer, the UK’s finance minister.
“I saw that this was coming and I want to make sure that we are well placed as a country to both benefit from it, but also to be protected against its harms,” he told TalkTV.
Downing Street task force advisor Matt Clifford warned that chances of the fast-learning systems wiping out humanity within two years are “not zero.”
Interviewed on TalkTV, he said the world needs “to regulate them on a global scale, because it’s not enough, I think, to regulate them nationally.”
“ULTIMATE SACRIFICE”
Sunak opened his two-day US visit by laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, just outside Washington.
“In memory of those who made the ultimate sacrifice in order that we might live free. We will remember them,” said a hand-written message from Sunak on the wreath.
Soldiers fired a 19-gun salute and played the US and UK anthems, as dozens of US armed forces personnel dressed in ceremonial uniforms formed an honor guard.
The Ukraine war is expected to dominate his conversations with Biden, with Britain joining the United States in championing robust military support to Kyiv.
The visit comes as Russia and Ukraine trade accusations over who blew up the large Kakhovka dam, triggering devastating floods.
Any intentional targeting of the dam would represent “the largest attack on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine since the start of the war, and just would demonstrate the new lows that we would have seen from Russian aggression,” Sunak told reporters aboard his plane from London.
The United States and Britain have not yet identified a culprit.
But in an interview with ITV News, Sunak said that Russia has pursued a “deliberate strategy to target civilian infrastructure.”
“It is wrong, it’s barbaric, and it’s appalling. That’s why we’re providing such strong support to them and will continue to do so,” he said of the Ukrainians.
Sunak has also been talking up British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace as a candidate to lead NATO before the Western military alliance holds a summit next month in Lithuania, with the prime ministers of Denmark and Estonia also seen as contenders.
KEEPING HOPES ON BUSINESS
Sunak will also meet US business leaders but he has given up on securing a post-Brexit trade deal anytime soon with the Biden administration, which has shown limited enthusiasm.
Sunak pointed to the US-UK military alliance as he made a case for the economic relationship.
“Just as interoperability between our militaries has given us a battlefield advantage over our adversaries, greater economic interoperability will give us a crucial edge in the decades ahead,” said Sunak, a wealthy former banker who studied in the United States and retains a property in California.
En route to Washington, Sunak announced cumulative US investment of more than £14 billion (US$17 billion) into Britain – though that figure includes some that has already been deployed.
The prime minister is pushing for US relief to UK carmakers, via greater access to critical minerals used in batteries, after Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act offered vast subsidies to companies with US operations.
Sunak was due later to watch the Washington Nationals baseball team play the Arizona Diamondbacks for the second annual “UK-US Friendship Day,” marking 238 years of diplomatic relations.
But the keen cricketer ducked the opportunity to throw the ceremonial first pitch – sparing his blushes if the throw goes astray in front of thousands.
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