Number 10 Downing Street

Rishi Sunak set for talks with Elon Musk in No 10 as PM hails ‘landmark’ summit achievement

Elon Musk will head to No 10 for talks with Rishi Sunak after the PM’s AI safety summit ends formally today. 

Musk, the billionaire owner of SpaceX and Tesla, is in the UK for the event at Bletchley Park and he is one of several influential figures warning of the dangers of artificial intelligence. 

It comes as Rishi Sunak will today join world leaders for a further joint statement on how to head off the most extreme AI risks. Yesterday, 28 countries including 15 members of the G20 signed the “Bletchley declaration” on the summit’s first day, which reads: “Substantial risks may arise from potential intentional misuse or unintended issues of control relating to alignment with human intent. These issues are in part because those capabilities are not fully understood and are therefore hard to predict.”

The prime minister hailed the agreement as a “landmark achievement”.

The summit, which closes later today, will be followed by a live-streamed discussion with Rishi Sunak and Elon Musk on X (formerly Twitter). It will take place in No 10 Downing Street. 

The UK PM will not be the first politician Musk has hosted on the platform — as X was the forum of choice for Florida governor Ron DeSantis to launch his US presidential bid. 

At the summit, Musk said AI was “one of the biggest threats to humanity” because it could soon become “far smarter than the smartest human”. 

He added: “It’s not clear to me we can actually control such a thing, but I think we can aspire to guide it in a direction that’s beneficial to humanity.”

In a video address to the Bletchley Park summit, yesterday, King Charles said: “The rapid rise of powerful artificial intelligence is considered by many of the greatest thinkers of our age no less significant, no less important than the discovery of electricity, the splitting of the atom, the creation of the world wide web or even the harnessing of fire.”

He added: “AI continues to advance with ever greater speed towards models that some predict could surpass human abilities, even human understanding. There is a clear imperative to ensure that this rapidly evolving technology remains safe and secure.”

Meanwhile, US Vice President Kamala Harris warned of risks including cyber attacks and bio-weapons, while also pointing to more everyday dangers such as disinformation.

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