The AI Safety Summit saw fears unveiled over AI being “one of the biggest threats to humanity” with the potential to wipe of human existence as politicians, executives and thinkers came together to develop a roadmap forward in creating safe AI.
The Summit has been labelled as a diplomatic breakthrough by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, as an international declaration was developed, recognising the need to address the risks and fears of the emerging piece of tech, as well as multilateral agreement to test advanced AI Models.
Attendees also included Kamala Harris, US vice-president, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, Elon Musk as well as award-winning computer scientists and executives at all the leading AI companies, bringing together the biggest political and commercial names across the industry to discuss major concerns.
The second day saw confirmation of United Nations support for an expert AI panel similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and major tech companies agreed to collaborate with government when testing advanced AI models as the second AI Safety Summit has been confirmed to take place in France in 2024
Sachin Agrawal, UK Managing Director at Zoho Corporation, said, “Much of the AI Summit quite rightly is focused around the discussion of its potential wider threat, and it is critical to prioritise this and formulate a global strategy. Zoho has long heralded that the safe and trustworthy roll-out of AI should involve collaboration between government, industry, technology experts and academia and this is true to both address potential negative use cases as well as to present more positive use cases of the technology.
The benefits to business can be significant and cannot be ignored but they still require a sensitive approach which helps safeguard customer data and builds trust. AI offers tools that can improve efficiencies and enhance customer journeys using customer service assistants, data analysis, forecasting and more. Building trust around its usage will require a collaborative approach from all, led by government and policy-makers who must provide guidance for businesses to follow.
Businesses should train and educate their staff. However, the software industry must also play a firm role in offering AI services to enhance business functionality and embed this within products to deliver benefits to customers from simply continuing to use the tools already in place.
Guardrails should be in place to ensure information used to provide such services does not compromise customer data and this should be explored by anyone looking to using AI services within their business. This way organisations can easily gain huge strategic insights to help their businesses quickly adapt to market trends, win more new business and serve their customers more effectively, for example, while maintaining trust.
They can also significantly increase efficiency through automation and the speed at which valuable information can be in the hands of the right people across a business. All of these lead to increased competitiveness and further business success to fuel the economy.
The Bletchley Park Summit acts as a first step in developing safe and ethical AI and we hope to see a continued focus on supporting businesses through a global, collaborative approach to this innovative technology.”
Oseloka Obiora, CTO at RiverSafe, said, “While people are embracing AI’s business benefits, concerns around safety have built, especially in the cybersecurity sector. It is great to see politicians, executives and academics come together to address the issues and road map how we can reap the benefits of AI safely. It is promising to see agreements be made however we must not take our eye off the ball and a continued focus on monitoring the development of AI to ensure protective protocols can be put in place is essential.”
“For business benefits to be capitalised upon, AI models must be scrutinised allowing robust and carefully thought out cybersecurity measures to be a developed and we hope the Summit provides leaders with the knowledge to guide businesses in how to protect themselves.”
Dr Yi Ding, Assistant Professor of Information Systems at the Gillmore Centre for Financial Technology at WBS, said, “Bringing together global AI experts was a positive step in the development of AI and cementing the UK’s position as a leader in this area.
QHowever, there is still uncertainty surrounding its safety and development in the months and years to come. As we move forward with AI in the wake of the Safety Summit, collaboration between Government, industry and academic research centres is essential to ensure the UK makes the most out of AI in a safe and secure manner.”
Leave a Comment