Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has criticised the push to regulate AI, proposing more testing instead. He wrote in a Substack article:
“in the excitement surrounding AI development, there is a risk that we move too quickly to debates about regulatory architecture before establishing where the failure exists.
Once that has been established, attention can turn to the practical challenge. How do we make sure that intervention is possible and effective? A sensible starting point is rigorous model testing, conducted before and after deployment. Such testing is essential if we are to understand the behaviour of increasingly complex systems, identify vulnerabilities and establish confidence in the safeguards that are intended to contain them. It should also form an important part of appropriate standards for deploying these models.”
Bailey said progress should accelerate. Burnham, meanwhile wants the UK to take on a position of chief global AI regulator. He said in his speech yesterday:
“As Gordon Brown has said, we can be the world’s innovation nation, and he’s right, we can.
A nation trusted by others to be a global leader in AI, an honest broker
When Britain takes the Presidency of the G20 next year, I will show our new-found confidence as a country, and I will show it to the world by putting AI centre stage and Britain will then work to develop a new global code to capture its benefits whilst being clear-eyed about its risks.
Just as Gordon did in the financial crisis in 2008, so Britain will do it again, step forward, and bring people together around what’s right for the future.”
Bailey added: “regulation is not, in my view, the right place to start.” Ouch…
Burnham said in his main conference speech: “For the historic victory he achieved for us, I am here to say: thank you, Keir.”