That means if the U.S. refuses to be brought to the table on AI, the U.K. could turn increasingly to China as the next largest global power.
The U.K and China already have ties on AI, said Isabella Wilkinson, Senior Research Fellow for the Digital Society Initiative at Chatham House. “The U.K. and China have had very close exchanges on issues of technology, policy, and cybersecurity in the past,” Wilkinson told a briefing ahead of Xi and Trump’s meeting.
Bridging the divide between China and the U.S. could be a way for the U.K. to bring America into the fold, Neff said.
“Burnham has some great diplomatic tools in the toolkit to be able to offer the Americans a way of third-party evaluation for safety, while coordinating with allied countries to ensure that their own systems are safe and secure,” she said.
For Burnham to achieve his goal of the U.K. being treated as the world’s “honest broker” on AI, he’ll have to decide how much pressure he wants to exert on its largest, and at present most unpredictable, ally.
“As the prime minister said, we are going to put AI at the heart of our G20 presidency and will work towards agreeing a single set of global principles and standards to ensure the transparency and access we need to increase our preparedness – and to ensure that AI development is safe,” the U.K. government spokesperson said.
Emilio Casalicchio contributed reporting.