U.K., Oct. 14 -- UK Parliament issued the following news:
After another week of high-profile public friction over AI safety, with fresh whistleblower testimony, safety expert resignations and extreme risk warnings from the highest levels of national and international security, the BIST Committee is launching a long-term inquiry into AI adoption, safety and governance.
Inquiry: AI adoption, safety and governance
The inquiry opened yesterday with arresting evidence in Parliament from former OpenAI and Anthropic employees explaining how they left the frontier developers over safety concerns .
Their evidence was immediately put to a second panel of current representatives from the four hyper-scalers OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and Google DeepMind, including how they work with the UK's AI Security Institute, which appeared on the final panel alongside senior Government officials.
You can re-watch that session here and a transcript will be available shortly. The Committee will be assessing new protections proposed in the new Cyber Security and Resilience Bill regime against the evidence it hears, including corporate processes for safety testing and incident reporting.
Chair comment
Rt Hon Liam Byrne, Chair of the Committee said:
"AI has great potential for good. But we cannot allow AI companies freedom to unleash dangers they cannot control. As we started work on AI safety in Parliament yesterday, we heard whistleblower warnings about the catastrophic risks that lie ahead, disarray among the tech giants over the rules needed to keep us safe, and the admission from senior officials that the Government has still not decided how or when it will act.
"We cannot proceed this way. Our new inquiry will map the new risks and propose the new rules Britain needs to keep AI safe for all, as we begin to crystalise global governance standards for the new world of AI through the UK's G20 presidency.
"The prize of AI is too great to squander, but the dangers of AI are too great to let loose without the right checks and controls in place."
This inquiry will remain open as individual pieces of work conclude, allowing the Committee to respond to developments and return to unresolved questions. The Committee will use a range of scrutiny tools – targeted evidence sessions, correspondence, visits, engagement and focused reports – depending on the particular issue and the impact sought. It will time interventions to inform decisions by government, regulators and industry, and test their accounts against independent evidence and the experience of those affected.
The Committee will track recommendations and commitments, revisit unanswered questions and assess changes in policy, regulation and business practice. Rather than a single call for written evidence launched immediately, individual targeted calls for evidence will set out specific questions and submission arrangements for particular strands of work.
Further information
About Parliament: Select committees
Visiting Parliament: Watch committees
Business Innovation, Science and Trade Committee
Image: Adobe stock
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
