We must heed warnings of AI tech developers, says UK minister

The UK government must "heed the warnings" of "those who are at the forefront" of developing artificial intelligence (AI) technology, a senior minister will say later.

First Secretary of State Louise Haigh will address the growing anxiety over AI safety when she speaks at the TUC congress on Tuesday.

She is expected to say the government is "ready to work with international partners" to prioritise public safety and national security.

Fears about the potential dangers of AI have ramped up in recent days after executives and current and former staff in the field warned the tech could endanger humanity.

On Monday, UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham welcomed the recent discussion of the risks, with his spokesperson saying: "It's a good thing that the companies developing the most advanced AI systems are now talking openly about the risks as well as the opportunities."

Speaking at the TUC congress later on Tuesday, Haigh is also expected to acknowledge the benefits, saying: "AI has enormous potential to transform our public services, make our businesses stronger and deliver new scientific breakthroughs."

In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said people should "never be complacent" about the impact AI might have but "we've got to be careful not to get hyperbolic about this either".

"Of course there are risks but, let's be frank, there are some tremendous upsides, whether it's public services, healthcare, the contribution to the economy," he added.

It comes as MPs in the UK are seeking new laws on AI after a report found the technology was responsible for numerous abuses of human rights.

"Nowhere in the world, including the UK, has a current legislative and regulatory approach to AI that is fit for purpose," Labour MP and committee chair Alex Sobel said.

Why are there concerns AI could threaten humanity, and how real are they?

One Anthropic researcher, Evan Hubinger, made headlines after he said he believed there is a greater than 10% chance AI "could kill all humans" within the next decade.

Hubinger's claim came after a researcher who quit Anthropic went viral for sounding the alarm on the "fate of humanity in the next two years" from AI.

"If we don't slow down at the current rate of progress, there is a strong chance that we could all die in the immediate future," Jacob Coxon, the former Anthropic employee, told the BBC.

Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei has since called for the pace of development on AI models, such as Claude or ChatGPT, to slow down and be closely monitored.

Amodei said risks associated with it were "serious" and that companies and governments must be given time to address them. Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk backed him.

However, some in the AI industry have suggested the fears around it destroying humanity are overstated or may even be designed to generate hype.

An AI "kill switch" has also been floated by an Anthropic co-founder as a way to shut down AI software that becomes too dangerous.

Jack Clark, one of seven founders of the AI company, told the BBC "most labs have different ways of being able to pull the plug", including Anthropic, but said MPs may need to enforce having one.

Asked about the idea of a "kill switch", Reynolds told the BBC: "I don't think that's a particularly helpful way to think about how we manage the risks - I'm not really sure what that would mean in practice."

He warned that overregulation could risk the UK losing access to models developed abroad, which he argued would make the country "less safe".

The proposal to create a legal mechanism for the UK to switch off an AI model in an emergency was brought to Parliament by Lords and MPs. But the Cabinet Office said the UK "cannot simply turn AI off".

"Blocking access to models in the UK would not prevent them being developed or misused elsewhere", a spokesperson told BBC News.

Meanwhile, the US President Donald Trump has dismissed the idea of AI taking over the world, saying on social media that AI "destroying Humanity, and all other things bad, is a HOAX".

In a more recent Truth post, Trump said the AI Hoax was "being perpetrated by the Radical Left Dumocrats" and likened it to what he describes as the "Global Warming Scam" by the left.

The president, who frequently shares AI content on his platform Truth Social, has lauded the benefits of AI and has been public about his desire for the US to win "the AI race".

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