Will the AI Summit in the UK this Fall Take Place? "China's Attendance Is Key"

G7 Leaders Likely to Attend Along with OpenAI and MS CEOs
"Rumored for November-December... Specific Dates Not Yet Confirmed"

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is reportedly planning a large-scale international conference that will bring together leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) countries and heads of artificial intelligence (AI) companies, drawing significant attention to whether the event will materialize. If the conference is successfully held and becomes a regular occurrence, it is expected to influence the direction of AI technological development, which is currently centered around the United States.

However, with no concrete schedule announced yet, the rapidly changing international relations are seen as a potential variable. In particular, the participation of China, which is at odds with the United States, is expected to have a major impact on the holding of the conference, leading to assessments that it remains uncertain whether the meeting can proceed according to the UK government's plans.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak
[Photo by EPA Yonhap News]

On the 16th (local time), Bloomberg News cited multiple sources reporting that Prime Minister Sunak is planning an event at the end of this year to bring together world leaders and AI-related company heads. It is currently expected that, along with US President Joe Biden and other G7 leaders, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI; Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft (MS); Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic; and Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind, will attend.

This event is interpreted as reflecting Prime Minister Sunak's strong determination for the UK to take the lead in AI. He has recently made several official statements about holding a summit on AI safety. During his visit to the US in June, he met with President Biden to discuss AI regulation issues and announced plans to host a summit in the fall to discuss regulations aimed at preventing misuse.

At the end of the same month, Sunak reiterated on his Twitter, "AI is the defining technology of our era, and I want the UK to lead technology development both domestically and internationally," emphasizing, "We have a clear strategy to develop technology safely so that everyone across the UK can benefit."

The UK government is expected to finalize the schedule and venue within weeks. For the conference venue, the UK government is reportedly considering holding the talks at Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking facility that cracked the German Enigma cipher during World War II and helped bring the war to an early end.

However, political media outlet Politico reported internal criticism that, compared to the UK government's announcement of holding the event in the "fall," no specific event schedule or list of attendees has yet been released. Politico stated, "Even insiders do not know when it will be held," and that there are conflicting reports within the government suggesting the summit could take place in early November or December.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

According to reports, discussions at the summit are expected to focus primarily on AI regulation. Monitoring who purchases AI semiconductors produced by companies like Nvidia is also said to be on the agenda. There may also be discussions on whether products created using AI should be separately labeled.

The key issue is considered to be whether China will attend. An anonymous source revealed that there is internal debate over whether to invite China to the conference amid concerns that Asian countries may not join the consensus on AI regulation. While allies are likely to oppose sharing AI-related information with China, the UK's desire to hold a multilateral summit makes excluding China a difficult decision.

However, Matt Schiavenza, a researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Politico, "You cannot solve the core issue of AI safety at a global level without including China."

Matt Clifford, CEO of Entrepreneur First, which is preparing the event alongside the UK government, explained on Bloomberg Radio that the event "focuses on creating a platform for global cooperation to jointly understand the risks related to AI and to consider how to mitigate these risks."

In a separate statement to Bloomberg, the UK government said that the summit to be held in the fall "will bring together major countries, leading technology companies, and researchers to drive swift and targeted international action."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.