Rishi Sunak’s job interview for Silicon Valley has gone well.
This week, the likely-to-be-unemployed-soon Prime Minister of the UK pitched his tech-bro credentials to the likes of Elon Musk, gaining widespread support in his call for AI regulation. There was genuine progress, in the form of a joint ‘declaration’ by 25 countries (including China) and the EU, recognising the short-term risks of AI.
The unity was mostly around the short-term threats of disinformation, less on the long-term existential impact. Musk’s statement that AI signals the end of employment – unless we want to bother with such trifles as ‘purposeful work’ – garnered headlines, but it was the harder yards of getting the likes of US Vice-President Kamala Harris and China’s Vice Minister of Science and Technology, Wu Zhaohui, to agree on anything that will endure.
Associating himself so strongly with AI is a sensible move for Sunak, as he hedges against his likely defeat in the next General Election. With the next of his AI Summits already booked to take place in France, this is actually a long-term ‘win’ for his legacy. It also won’t hurt his CV, as he inevitably touts his personal brand around California in the coming months to secure a Nick Clegg-style, post-politics tech role.
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