UK to host AI conference in San Francisco

It will be held across the 21st and 22nd November and will feature a number of workshops and discussions focused on AI safety ahead of France hosting the AI Action Summit in February 2025.  

Earlier this year, we’re told 16 companies agreed to publish their latest AI safety frameworks laying out their plans to tackle the most severe potential AI risks, and this conference will be a ‘moment for AI companies to take stock and share ideas and insights to support the development of their AI safety frameworks through a targeted day of talks between signatory companies and researchers.’

It will be co-hosted with the Centre for the Governance of AI and led by the UK’s AI Safety Institute, and it will give the various attendees the chance to yak about how the commitments are being put into practice.  

The release says this follows the US Government’s announcement yesterday about the first meeting of the International Network of AI Safety Institutes, which will take place in the days before from November 20-21st 2024, again in San Francisco. 

“The conference is a clear sign of the UK’s ambition to further the shared global mission to design practical and effective approaches to AI safety,” said Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle. “We’re just months away from the AI Action Summit, and the discussions in San Francisco will give companies a clear focus on where and how they can bolster their AI safety plans building on the commitments they made in Seoul.”

There are two things chatter around AI usually coalesces around – how much money it might bring in and what are we getting ourselves into if it all goes wrong?

IDC put out a release this week claiming AI will contribute $19.9 trillion to the global economy in 2030 and Drive 3.5% of global GDP. It also said AI will affect jobs across every region of the world, and that 98% of business leaders view AI as a priority for their organisation.

"In 2024, AI entered a phase of accelerated development and deployment defined by widespread integration that's led to a surge in enterprise investments aimed at significantly optimizing operational costs and timelines," said Lapo Fioretti, senior research analyst, Emerging Technologies and Macroeconomics, IDC. "By automating routine tasks and unlocking new efficiencies, AI will have profound economic consequences, reshaping industries, creating new markets, and altering the competitive landscape."

Meanwhile the GSMA this week launched a tool to help telcos ‘adopt and measure responsible and ethical approaches to AI’. Called the Responsible AI (RAI) Maturity Roadmap, it was described in the release as allowing telcos to “assess where they currently stand in terms of their existing maturity in using AI responsibly against where they want to go, i.e. their ambitions and needs.”

“The transformative potential of AI has long been apparent but its integration in our work and our lives must be done in a responsible and transparent way for it to be truly effective and sustainable,” said Mats Granryd, Director General of the GSMA. “This roadmap will now empower more MNOs to embrace AI in the knowledge they, in line with the whole sector, are doing so responsibly and ethically. Responsible AI is the right way to explore and unlock the many opportunities the technology presents, and the telecoms industry is proud to lead the way as the first sector to commit to this approach – we hope others will follow our example.”