King Charles ventures into the AI debate, a technology he’s previously warned about
By Issy Ronald and Max Foster, CNN
London (CNN) — British royals tread carefully when venturing into complex policy areas. Constitutionally bound to remain above politics, they can spotlight problems but not necessarily suggest any ways to solve them.
So, King Charles III is making his entry into the world of AI as a convener rather than an actor, hosting senior figures from AI companies, government and charities at a summit near Glasgow in Scotland on Thursday to discuss using the technology in ways that benefit society.
Attendees will discuss whether a shared set of principles can be reached, forming a framework to guide future applications of AI technologies in ways beneficial to both people and the planet.
Charles himself is expected to attend the summit for just 20 minutes. Several significant figures from the AI world are attending, including the UK’s AI minister Kanishka Narayan and representatives from Nvidia, Google DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic, though it’s unclear who these companies are sending. There will also be representation from China, Buckingham Palace said, without giving more detail.
Nvidia’s chief executive Jensen Huang, Google DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis and Paolo Benanti, an AI adviser to the Vatican, are on the guest list, multiple outlets reported. Officials from Charles’ charities The King’s Trust and The King’s Foundation will also be present.
Charles, 77, will tell those gathered that “the development of AI – its substance and its pace – are both intriguing and deeply concerning in equal measure.”
He will urge those at the summit to consider how the world can harness the benefits of AI while keeping safety central, and how to ensure international cooperation and consensus so that no nation is left behind, the palace said.
“Those in our world who value our humanity and its vital moral component are anxiously seeking your reassurance that we will not lose control of our destiny,” he will say.
Protecting privacy
The monarch has rarely spoken about AI before. When he has, it has been with a cautionary tone. The technology presents “profound challenges,” he said in a taped address at the UK’s AI Safety Summit in 2023, calling on attendees “to protect people’s privacy and livelihoods… to secure our democracies from harm and to ensure the benefits of new technology are shared by all.”
Similarly, he referenced the importance of harnessing AI so it “works for our societies, not against them” in a speech at a gathering of Commonwealth heads of government in 2024.
Still, Charles’ entry into the debate around one of the biggest current issues is perhaps unsurprising since he has made a habit of referencing existential challenges facing humanity, most notably regarding climate change and the environment.
The United Kingdom occupies a slightly awkward position in terms of AI safety. It has some of the world’s leading universities and the respected AI Security Institute, but its influence is limited, given that the most advanced AI models are developed in China and the United States. Earlier this month, for example, Anthropic – one of the world’s leading AI companies – didn’t submit its latest model to the institute for testing for the first time, according to the Financial Times.
AI safety concerns
While this summit would have been planned months in advance, its timing is apt. AI safety has dominated headlines in recent days, prompted first by Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon quitting his job and saying, “the people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade.” Then, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for slowing “the pace at which we improve the capabilities of AI models.”
“(Coxon) was calling out the dynamic of the industry as a whole moving too fast,” Amodei later told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, arguing that taking the “right paths” of AI development would lessen the existential threat it poses to humans.
Two of his direct competitors, Open AI chief executive Sam Altman and Elon Musk, both said they agreed with Amodei.
“When we talk about ‘pacing,’ we do not mean ‘stopping,’” Altman added in a post on X on Monday. “Progress has been rapid and will continue to be. But it should be slower than it otherwise could be; interventions like safety cases and monitoring have significant costs.”
This rare instance of public unity among three of the industry’s leading figures comes shortly after OpenAI, Meta and Anthropic all reported rogue AI agents escaping their lab environment during testing and hacking into another organization.
The-CNN-Wire
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