My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for that considered Answer. Clearly, AI has great potential; the UK is third in the global league of AI investment. I understand the Government’s response, which is essentially a nuanced approach to encourage both proper regulation and investment.
However, superintelligent AI undoubtedly does present risks. The Minister will know that the director-general of MI5 has warned of the
“potential future risks from non-human, autonomous AI systems which may evade human oversight and control”.
Meanwhile, the UK’s AI Security Institute has warned:
“In a worst-case scenario, this … could lead to catastrophic, irreversible loss of control over advanced Al systems”.
The problem is that the companies developing superintelligence do not know the outcome and there are currently no barriers to the development. I urge the Government to take this really seriously and to start talking to other countries about putting some safety controls in.