The UK on Wednesday published the “Bletchley Declaration”, agreed with countries including the US and China, aimed at boosting global efforts to cooperate on artificial intelligence safety.
The declaration, by 28 countries in total, was published on the opening day of the AI Safety Summit hosted in Bletchley Park, central England. South Africa is not among the signatories.
“The declaration fulfils key summit objectives in establishing shared agreement and responsibility on the risks, opportunities and a forward process for international collaboration on frontier AI safety and research, particularly through greater scientific collaboration,” the UK government said in a separate statement accompanying the declaration.
The declaration encouraged transparency and accountability from actors developing frontier AI technology on their plans to measure, monitor and mitigate potentially harmful capabilities.
Two-pronged agenda
It set out a two-pronged agenda focused on identifying risks of shared concern and building the scientific understanding of them, and also building cross-country policies to mitigate them.
“This includes, alongside increased transparency by private actors developing frontier AI capabilities, appropriate evaluation metrics, tools for safety testing, and developing relevant public sector capability and scientific research,” the declaration said. — William James, (c) 2023 Reuters