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Hunt: global AI standards must reflect liberal democratic values.
Jeremy Hunt tells Davos that Western goverments must talk to China about artificial intelligence, and that it is very important that global AI standards reflect liberal democratic values.
He says:
When it comes to setting global AI standards, it’s very important that they reflect liberal democratic values.
But, I think it is really important that we talk to countries like China.
Hunt points out that Sam Altman, alongside him on today’s panel, has a sign in his OpenAI office that says ‘no-one knows the future’.
But, Hunt says, “we do have agency over the future”, and that is why there is tension between the two (AI developers, and policymakers).
Hunt says we are “incredibly lucky” that people like Sam Altman are helping to transform humanity’s prospects for the future.
No-on in the room here in Davos today thinks the world would be better without AI, Hunt argues. “But we have choices”.
Hunt says:
The choice we need to make is how to harness it, so it is a force for good.
I actually think that means talking to countries like China.
One of the ways it would be a force for bad is if it just becmae a tool in a new geo-strategic superpower race, with much of the energy put into weapons rather than things that could transform our daily lives.
One way to avoid that is to have discussions with countries like China over common ground, Hunt says.
He adds that the benefits of AI should be spread throughout the world, and not just concentrated in advance economies.
Hunt says previous technological revolutions, such as the industrial revolution and computer revolution, succeeded where the benefits were spread evenly across society, not concentrated in small groups.
He adds:
Otherwise that will deepen some of the fractures that are already, in my view, taking us in the wrong direction.