"I can announce that we will establish the world’s first AI Safety Institute – right here in the UK. It will advance the world’s knowledge of AI safety," he said in a televised speech in London.
As with every wave of technology, AI can bring new opportunities for economic growth and advances in human capability, such as in treatments for previously incurable diseases. But it can also bring "new dangers and new fears," Sunak said.
AI can be exploited to build chemical or biological weapons, launch cyberattacks, spread disinformation or, in the worst-case scenario, get out of control completely by developing what is sometimes referred to as "super intelligence."
Sunak admitted that "extinction from AI" was "not a risk that people need to be losing sleep over right now" but warned that, however unlikely such risks were, world leaders had a responsibility to take them seriously and to act.
As the first step in that direction, the UK plans to host the world’s first ever Global AI Safety Summit next week, at Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes. Sunak said he had invited China as one of the world’s leading AI powers.