UK tech leaders have cheered the government’s decision to reject an international declaration on “inclusive and sustainable” artificial intelligence.
The AI Action Summit in Paris this week saw 60 attending countries — including France, China, India and Japan — sign the agreement, which was rejected by the US and the UK.
British officials were hailed by some in the tech sector for the snub, who say that the agreement lacks substance.
“The Paris agreement is a values checklist which sounds nice, but is incredibly vague,” says Cherry Freeman, founder and general partner at Hiro Capital. “Entrepreneurs need clarity, not virtue signalling — and I’m pleased we have the confidence to go our own way.”
The chorus of support from Britain’s tech elite reinforces previous calls from European entrepreneurs to copy the US’s deregulatory approach. On Tuesday, vice president JD Vance railed against the European Union’s “excessive regulation” of tech, singling out some laws as attacks on free speech.
Asked by the Guardian why the UK chose not to sign the declaration, a government spokesperson said it did not do enough to address national security concerns, adding: “We agreed with much of the leaders’ declaration and continue to work closely with our international partners.”
Cutting red tape
European leaders have been urged to pare back tech regulation in Paris this week. In a surprise move, the European Commission on Tuesday confirmed it had scrapped proposals that would have enabled consumers to claim compensation for harm caused by AI.
Signatories who signed the declaration in Paris committed to “making AI sustainable for people and the planet” and “ensuring AI is open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure and trustworthy, taking into account international frameworks”.
But “there’s simply no way of measuring compliance, let alone enforcing it,” says Freeman.
“If declining to sign the Paris statement signals the current UK government’s intent to focus on regulatory substance over diplomatic form, then that is good news for the sector — and the UK,” Roeland Decorte, CEO of AI healthtech Decorte Future Industries tells Sifted.
“The UK is between a rock and a hard place on this one,” says Khyati Sundaram, CEO of skills-based hiring platform Applied. “As a founder, I’ve already spent at least 100 hours on the compliance requirements of the EU AI Act and I’m not even close to being finished.”
She adds: “I can understand the UK’s hesitance when it comes to signing up to sweeping declarations … But we can’t kick the can down the road permanently and need to offer the market a clear roadmap of what to expect.”
A year or so after Britain hosted the world’s first AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, the recently-elected Labour government has been keen to focus on the technology’s potential upsides, rather than its risks — recruiting entrepreneur Matt Clifford to draft an “AI opportunities action plan”, published last month.
Leo Ringer, general partner at London-based Form Ventures, tells Sifted: “The UK government refusing to sign says less about its AI policy and more about signalling support for the Trump administration’s sceptical view of multilateral policymaking.
“But it’s hard to reconcile with the UK’s previously successful efforts to put itself at the heart of global AI policymaking.”
Josh Browder, the British founder behind AI-powered consumer tool DoNotPay, cheered the government’s decision not to sign the declaration. “I strongly agree with the UK’s approach. AI safety has been used to slow down progress and allow foreign adversaries, who pose much threat to global safety, to gain momentum,” he says.
“The way to ensure AI safety is not through regulation, but by ensuring the ‘good guys’ are ahead in building and research,” he adds. “Too much is at stake to let bad actors gain an edge in the global AI race.”
But not everyone was so positive about the UK’s position.
“If the UK government is simply following the lead of the US, it may well backfire,” says Calum Chace, cofounder of AI research organisation Conscium.
“The Prime Minister said he wanted to mainline AI into the veins of the UK. That’s all very well, but he will find it harder to do so if he alienates key groups — nations and companies — whose cooperation he needs to achieve it.”
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/uk-tech-leaders-cheer-paris-declaration-snub-news/
