Sir Iain Duncan Smith urges ban on China attending summit on AI
Sir Iain Duncan Smith urges Rishi Sunak to ban China from attending the UK’s world-first summit on AI
- The summit will take place in November amid fears of AI’s rapid advancement
- Sir Iain Duncan Smith said China was a ‘threat’ with AI technology dominance
Rishi Sunak was last night urged to ban Beijing from attending the UK’s world-first summit on artificial intelligence.
Britain will host a major meeting of countries to discuss the risk of the rise in the technology and bid to agree on global safety measures.
The Prime Minister announced the summit, which will take place in November, amid fears AI’s rapid advancement meant current working practices and safeguards are already out of date.
His aim is to position the UK as ‘home to the transformative technologies of the future’.
The Government is said to want to involve the Chinese due to the size of the country’s AI industry, but the Prime Minister is under fresh pressure to exclude them from the Bletchley Park gathering.
Rishi Sunak was last night urged to ban Beijing from attending the UK’s world-first summit on artificial intelligence
Tory former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a leading ‘China hawk’, told the Daily Mail last night: ‘They have dominance in AI and they have dominance in genomics, and they are working to bring the two together. It’s astonishing really.
‘They are a threat and until we wake up to that threat, engaging with them only makes us look weak. [The summit] is an engagement for people who are in the free world – that’s what it should be.
‘We don’t want to engage people who are not in the free world because they don’t give a damn about us.’
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly visited China last month, and insisted it would not be ‘credible’ to disengage with Beijing.
But the EU, US and Japan are also reportedly pushing back against inviting China.
Air Street Capital, a venture capital firm investing in AI-first technology, has also said China should not be invited.
In a blog post, it said ‘democratic nations have little to gain from involving a hostile government with a track record of subverting international institutions, especially considering that they have yet to agree on many of the issues at stake’.
Lord Dannatt, a former Chief of the General Staff, said Britain should be ‘very wary’ of involving China in information communications or intelligence infrastructure.
Tory former leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a leading ‘China hawk’, told the Daily Mail that engaging with China ‘only makes us look weak’
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly visited China last month, and insisted it would not be ‘credible’ to disengage with Beijing
But he told the Mail: ‘If it’s a general discussion [at the conference] about the use of AI, that is probably fine. But if it was a conference focusing on intelligence and counter-intelligence it would be totally inappropriate to invite the Chinese.’
Tory MP Mark Logan, vice-chairman of the all-party parliamentary committee on China, said Beijing should ‘100 per cent’ be invited to the summit.
‘The reality of the world that we live in – whether for those of my colleagues that detest it or not – the reality is that China is a potential global superpower and any decisions and investments it makes or technological developments it has are going to impact on we live our lives today or in the future,’ he told the Mail.
Fellow Conservative backbencher Bob Seely, a member of the Commons foreign affairs committee, said: ‘I don’t think we should sulk, I think we should continue to deal with people.
‘The more you disagree with people, the more you should be communicating with them to understand them better and so they understand you better.
The Government is said to want to involve the Chinese in the major meeting due to the size of the country’s AI industry, but the Prime Minister is under fresh pressure to exclude them
‘I don’t see anything wrong at the moment in inviting them, although we have to be mindful that they are using AI and big data to oppress their population.’
Britain is a world leader in AI, ranking third behind the US and China. The technology contributed £3.7billion to the UK economy last year and employs 50,000 people.
Tech companies, researchers and key countries will meet at the UK summit to consider the risks of AI and discuss how they can be mitigated through internationally-coordinated action.
The summit will also provide a platform for countries to work together on developing a shared approach to mitigate the risks.
A Government spokesman said: ‘The UK will host the first major global summit on AI safety this November, bringing together key countries, as well as leading technology companies and researchers, to drive targeted, rapid international action.
‘AI safety requires a collaborative approach, and we will work with… governments to ensure we can agree on safety measures which are needed to evaluate and monitor the most significant risks emerging from the newest developments in AI technologies.’
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