‘No reasonable person’ can expect China to play by AI rules: Truss
Liz Truss has urged Rishi Sunak to rescind China’s invite to the government’s landmark summit on artificial intelligence (AI) next week.
The short-lived former Prime Minister wrote to her successor asking him to reconsider extending the invitation to Xi Jinping’s government in Beijing.
Sunak plans to host foreign government representatives, including US vice-president Kamala Harris, business leaders and academics at the two-day forum at Bletchley Park, after No10 warned it couldn’t rule out AI posing an “existential threat” to humanity.
In the letter shared on X, formerly Twitter, Truss wrote: “I was deeply disturbed to learn that the government intends welcoming to next week’s AI summit representatives of the same Chinese state that has used and abused technology to aid its oppression of millions and attacks on freedom and democracy.
“The regime in Beijing has a fundamentally different attitude to the West about AI, seeing it as a means of state control and a tool for national security.”
Truss also highlighted Oliver Dowden’s decision in 2020 when he was digital secretary to remove Chinese-made Huawei equipment from the UK’s 5G networks.
“That was the correct call then and should have informed decisions about invitations to the Bletchley Park summit,” she said.
The former Tory leader, who spent just 49 days in office last autumn, added: “No reasonable person expects China to abide by anything agreed at this kind of summit, given their cavalier attitude to international law.
“I am therefore requesting that you reconsider the invitation you have extended to China to next week’s summit.”
The letter emerged after Sunak gave a speech this morning on the risks and rewards of the developing technology, following the government’s publication of AI scenarios up to 2030.
Warnings included that AI could lead to job losses, rising poverty, election interference, scams, fraud and fake news, and even cyber-attacks and terrorists developing bio-weapons.
No10 has been approached for comment.