Foreign Secretary calls for international cooperation to A.I. global implications

The United Kingdom (UK) Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly is today chairing the first ever UN Security Council (UNSC) session on Artificial Intelligence (A.I.)

The UNSC session comes ahead of first ever global A.I. safety summit in the UK later this year. As a permanent member of the UNSC and current Presidency holder for the month of July, the UK used its chairmanship to make a call for global cooperation, which it says is vital to ensure A.I. technologies and the rules governing their use are developed responsibly in a way that benefits society.

Taking place in the Security Council Chamber in New York, the high-level briefing will discuss the potential implications of A.I. on international peace and security and how to promote its safe and responsible use.  In chairing today’s session, Cleverly will invite remarks from Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres; co-founder of leading A.I. company, Anthopic Jack Clark and Professor Zeng Yi, Director of the Brain-inspired Cognitive Intelligence Lab and co-Director of the China-UK Research Center for A.I. Ethics and Governance.  

Nations called to action 

During the session Cleverly emphasizes, “No country will be untouched by A.I., so we must involve and engage the widest coalition of international actors from all sectors. The UK is home to many of the world’s trail-blazing A.I. developers and foremost A.I. safety researchers. So this autumn the UK plans to bring world leaders together for the first major global summit on A.I. safety.“ 

He stresses, “The shared goal will be to consider the risks of AI and decide how they can be reduced through coordinated action urging participants. Momentous opportunities – on a scale that we can barely imagine – lie before us. We must seize these opportunities and grasp the challenges of AI – including those for international peace and security – decisively, optimistically and from a position of global unity on essential principles.”

The UK Foreign Secretary acknowledged that rapid developments in A.I. technologies have the capacity to fundamentally transform our societies and the way we live and work. Global cooperation will be vital to ensure A.I. technologies and the rules governing their use are developed responsibly in a way that benefits society.  

Global conversation on A.I. 

For his part, the UK’s Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology, Chloe Smith comments, “The UK chairing the first ever briefing session on AI at the United Nations Security Council is an important milestone – of all the many issues discussed in the Council Chamber over the years, A.I. is among the most profound. We are at the heart of the global conversation on A.I. Later this year, the UK will host the first major global summit on A.I. safety to agree on targeted, rapid, internationally coordinated action, allowing us to safely realise the huge opportunities of artificial intelligence.”

She made the point that A.I. can help grow our economy and deliver better public services, and working with our global partners will ensure the right guardrails are in place for its safe and responsible development. Last month, the UK Prime Minister announced that it will host the first major global summit on A.I. safety. 

The summit will consider the risks of A.I. particularly at the frontier of the technology, and discuss how they can be mitigated through internationally coordinated action. It will also provide a platform for countries to work together on further developing a shared approach to mitigate these risks. 

The UK A.I. sector is estimated to contribute £3.7 billion in gross value added (GVA) to the UK economy and employs over 50,000 people, developing A.I. solutions across all sectors of the UK economy.  The UK have a long history of leadership in A.I. 

In 2016, the UK initiated an international discussion on A.I. principles with G7 counterparts, paving the way for the 2019 OECD A.I. Recommendations and in 2020, the UK supported the launch of the Global Partnership on A.I. (GPAI), becoming a founding member. Following the publication of the National A.I. Strategy in September 2021, the UK published the A.I. Regulation White Paper in March 2023, setting out a context-based, proportionate and adaptable approach to regulating A.I.