The UK’s Global AI Summit: Everything You Need To Know

AI development has seen rapid growth in recent years, and its different applications mean that a wide variety of sectors have already implemented it to streamline and automate processes.

Sensationalist tabloids have long been running stories that play into the public’s fear of the “rise of the robots”. While this is more Hollywood than reality, a story broke in June 2023 about the US military carrying out AI drone tests.

According to reports, the theory-based exercise saw the AI drone kill its “human” controller in order to carry out its intended mission. This story carried credibility as it was attributed to The US Air Force AI Test and Ops Unit’s head Colonel Tucker Hamilton. He made the claim at a London Conference, held by the Royal Aeronautical Society. He later retracted the statement and claimed he misspoke.

Born out of this, the UK summit aims to address the potential risks and misinformation and will see leaders from various nations attending.

Where and When the UK AI Summit is Taking Place

The Global AI Summit will take place on the 1st and 2nd of November 2023. The location of the summit will be the famous home of the World War Two codebreakers, Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak revealed the location that gained popularity again after the movie “The Imitation Game” was released in 2014. The film showcased the remarkable story of Alan Turing decoding Nazi messages and his significant contributions to computer science and artificial intelligence. The idea behind this choice of location is to position the UK as the home of AI regulation.

The Key Players

The summit will be attended by representatives of the Group of Seven (G7). The seven countries that have the most advanced economies make up the G7 and include the UK, the U.S., Canada, Japan, France, Italy, and Germany.

The governments of these nations will explore ways to regulate the use of AI and mitigate the risk of potentially negative consequences.

AI Applications

Artificial Intelligence can potentially be applied to most, if not all industries to automate processes and streamline operations. This will help to improve efficiency and reduce costs.

However, there are fears that this could lead to many jobs becoming obsolete and that people could use it for nefarious purposes.

With so many potential applications, leading nations are eager to implement regulations that can safeguard the industries and sectors AI impacts.

Financial Services

In recent years many financial services have successfully transitioned operations to be managed online. This has provided users with convenient access to products and accounts wherever they are.

AI has been implemented to improve the security of options like this with complex fraud detection algorithms in place. AI can analyse transaction patterns to flag any that seem irregular and bring them to the attention of the customer and financial institution.

AI has also made a significant impact on the trading market. Algorithmic trading now makes up around 60% of the European trading market and allows for more reactive decision-making.

Gambling Industry

The use of AI in the gambling industry has been instrumental in the improvement of online gambling sites. It can be used to tailor the user experience in real-time and create offers based on user betting patterns, monitoring their favourite games and spending habits.

AI can also help to protect customers by offering help should betting patterns indicate potentially concerning behaviours. The technology can offer protective measures by identifying concerning betting behaviors, prompting systems to provide resources and services like GAMSTOP to those potentially at risk.

GAMSTOP is a UK-based voluntary service that allows users to exclude themselves from participating online gambling sites. Of course, AI and services like GAMSTOP have not been perfected yet and can limit access to popular casino games for players in error. Users finding themselves in this situation can still explore the best casinos not on GAMSTOP in order to circumvent these limitations, although care must be taken to ensure that these platforms are properly licenced.

Healthcare

The implementation of AI in healthcare has improved diagnosis and surgery because of the vast amounts of data it can handle in comparison to humans.

AI algorithms can be used to consider all the factors affecting a patient to determine the best course of action. They can also ensure precision and provide assistance for complex surgeries.

AI also has applications in disease prevention and control studies and drug discovery, as well as the safe storage of sensitive medical data and patient information.

The industry is already worth $11 billion as of 2021, and is set to have a compound annual growth rate of 37%, making it worth an estimated $188 billion by 2030. Despite its many valuable uses, it’s thought that around 60% of US adults are concerned about medical practitioners’ use of AI, something the Summit should address.

Military

As seen in Colonel Tucker Hamilton’s example, military use of AI is one of the most concerning to the public. Nations participating in the UK’s AI Summit will therefore want to create clear regulations surrounding its safe use.

Despite scare stories, the military is already making positive uses of this technology, and the global military AI sector is worth $7,448.4 million. Current applications include analysing satellite images to assess battlefields and conflicts. This will allow the military to make quick decisions and target enemy forces. Doing so will be invaluable to military logistics operations and transportation. Increased efficiency in this field will improve success and lower costs.

Warfare systems including weapons, drones, and aviation support will benefit from state-of-the-art AI systems that react to conditions and changes of circumstance. They will require less human control and will implement strategic decision-making to neutralise threats. Target identification will also mitigate the risk of friendly fire incidents and remove the human element from stressful and chaotic environments.

Combat simulation, research, and data processing will all benefit from the implementation of AI systems. They will help to identify areas of success and those that require attention.