The UK PM recently announced $125M for a foundation model task force. While the announcement stressed AI safety, it also stressed capabilities. But this morning the PM said 'It'll be about safety' and that the UK is spending more than other countries on this and one small media outlet had already coined this the 'safer AI taskforce'.
Ian Hogarth is leading the task force who's on record saying that AGI could lead to “obsolescence or destruction of the human race” if there’s no regulation on the technology’s progress.
Matt Clifford is also advising the task force - on record having said the same thing and knows a lot about AI safety. He had Jess Whittlestone & Jack Clark on his podcast.
If mainstream AI safety is useful and doesn't increase capabilities, then the taskforce and the $125M seem valuable.
We should use this window of opportunity to solidify this by quoting the PM and getting '$125M for AI safety research' and 'safer AI taskforce' locked in, by writing and promoting op-eds that commend spending on AI safety and urge other countries to follow (cf. the NSF has announced a $20M for empirical AI safety research). OpenAI, Anthropic, A16z and Palantir are all joining DeepMind in setting up offices in London.
This might create an AI safety race to the top as a solution to the tragedy of the commons (cf. the US has criticized Germany for not spending 2% of GDP on defence; Germany’s shot back saying the US should first meet the 0.7% of GNI on aid target).
I am confused why you are framing this in a positive way? The announcement seems to primarily be that the UK is investing $125M into scaling AI systems in order to join a global arms race to be among the first to gain access to very powerful AI systems.
The usage of "safety" in the article seems to have little to do with existential risk, and indeed seems mostly straightforward safety-washing.
Like, I am genuinely open to this being a good development, and I think a lot of recent development around AI policy and the world's relationship to AI risk has been good, but I do really have trouble seeing how this announcement is a positive sign.
Thanks, I was confused that I couldn't find it.