The UK government has set out its ambitions for the much-anticipated AI Safety Summit taking place on the 1 and 2 November at the historic Bletchley Park.

Information about the global summit has been steadily trickling out since the UK government first announced. Currently, the UK government is taking a non-statutory approach to AI regulations, essentially not introducing any formal legislation to moderate its application.

Despite not leading the race for AI regulation, the UK is aiming to come out as an AI superpower by hosting the summit.

Secretary of State Michelle Donelan is this week launching the start of formal engagement prior to the summit as Jonathan Black and Matt Clifford, the Prime Minister’s Representatives for the AI Safety Summit, begin discussions with countries and some frontier AI organisations. This follows a roundtable hosted by the Secretary of State with a cross-section of civil society groups last week.

The AI Safety Summit aims to bring together countries, as well as leading technology organisations, academia and civil society to inform rapid national and international action at the frontier of Artificial Intelligence (AI) development.

According to the UK government the summit will focus on risks created or significantly exacerbated by the most powerful AI systems, particularly those associated with the potentially dangerous capabilities of these systems. For example, this would include the proliferation of access to information which could undermine biosecurity.

Interestingly, this priority comes closely after the UK government launching an exploratory market into the use of AI facial recognition, which privacy and human rights activists have pushed back on over concerns this could target individuals, increase discrimination, and invade personal privacy.

The UK government, however, would also like the summit to focus on how “safe AI” can be used for public good and to improve people’s lives – from lifesaving medical technology to safer transport.

Medical research in the UK have revealed the efficiency in AI systems being used for diagnosis of heart disease.

As part of an iterative and consultative process, the UK is now sharing the five objectives which will be progressed. These build upon initial stakeholder consultation and evidence-gathering and will frame the discussion at the summit:

• a shared understanding of the risks posed by frontier AI and the need for action
• a forward process for international collaboration on frontier AI safety, including how best to support national and international frameworks
• appropriate measures which individual organisations should take to increase frontier AI safety
• areas for potential collaboration on AI safety research, including evaluating model capabilities and the development of new standards to support governance
• showcase how ensuring the safe development of AI will enable AI to be used for good globally

The UK government has claimed that the emergence of AI models with increasingly general capabilities, and step changes in accessibility and application, have created the prospect of up to $7 trillion in growth over the next 10 years and significantly faster drug discovery.

Despite a current lack of formal regulations, the government also admitted that without appropriate guardrails, this technology also poses significant risks in ways that do not respect national boundaries.

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The need to address these risks, including at an international level, is increasingly urgent.

The summit therefore aims to build on the work of the UN, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), Council of Europe, G7, G20 and standard development organisations to formally address the risks of frontier AI.

This will include further discussions on how to operationalise risk-mitigation measures at frontier AI organisations, assessment of the most important areas for international collaboration to support safe frontier AI, and a roadmap for longer-term action.