BLETCHLEY, England — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he had been vindicated in inviting China to his AI summit after securing Chinese and American backing for a shared communique on the emerging technology — including his predecessor Liz Truss.
Talking on POLITICO’s Power Play podcast ahead of day two of his inaugural AI summit at Bletchley Park, Sunak said it had been the “right decision” to invite China, despite vocal opposition to that choice from his Tory backbenchers.
“It’s the right decision for the country in the long term. I think there can’t really be a substantive conversation about AI without involving the world’s leading AI nations. And China is indisputably one of those.
“I’m pleased that they’ve engaged … it hasn’t happened for a long time that, you know, we’ve all signed the same bit of paper, whether that’s us, the Americans, Europeans [or] China, which I think is a good sign of progress.”
It’s been nothing short of a diplomatic coup for Sunak, getting almost 30 countries, including fierce geopolitical rivals China and the U.S., to sign the “Bletchley Declaration,” an international agreement listing the opportunities, risks and need for global action on the most advanced forms of the tech.
Sunak has also won international backing for his outreach to China. “I’d rather be inclusive … if you want to act on guardrails, it is important to have these voices around the table,” said Canadian innovation minister François-Philippe Champagne to POLITICO.
The British PM also rejected the view that Washington had stolen his thunder by releasing its executive order on AI this week.
“I think actually the opposite. I’m really pleased that the U.S. have taken this moment when we’re convening this summit for the Vice President to give a really important speech on AI and for the President to release the executive order.”
Sunak added that Washington and London will work “extremely closely” on addressing challenges from the emerging tech through their newly-announced AI safety institutes.
“We can’t have companies marking their own homework,” he said. “It’s making sure governments are doing the safety testing and evaluation of models, ideally, before they’re released to the public, to make sure that they are safe. Now that is going to be the subject of our discussion tomorrow between the companies and the leaders about how we turn some of these principles into practice.”