The Prime Minister has joined the US in snubbing a global AI agreement (Image: Getty)
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and US President Donald Trump appear to have snubbed a global agreement on (AI).
The UK and the US have not signed a leaders’ declaration following days of talks at the AI Action Summit in Paris.
Reports suggested that Britain would abstain from signing the agreement after US Vice President expressed concerns about the language of the document, which stressed the importance of a “sustainable and inclusive” approach to new technology.
But Sir may have angered French President Emmanual Macron by declining to sign the agreement, which was the culmination of discussions between world leaders and tech executives in the French capital – an event the PM decided not to attend in person.
Downing Street said the leaders’ declaration did not reflect the UK Government’s position on “opportunity and security” for AI, and denied that it had been following the US in choosing not to sign.
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Keir Starmer was not among the world leaders at the Paris Summit this week (Image: Getty)
“This isn’t about the US. This is about our own national interest, ensuring the balance between opportunity and security,” a spokesperson said.
“We didn’t sign the declaration because it did not reflect the UK’s policy positions on opportunity and security.”
They added that the Labour administration wasn’t worried about upsetting France with the move.
“We are and always have been clear-eyed on the need to ensure safety is baked into AI from the outset and that’s why we’re continuing to support the work of our AI Safety Institute,” the PM representative said.
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle was sent in Mr Starmer’s place to discuss the UK’s AI potential with a host of world leaders and tech executives in the EU country’s capital city.
Global tensions made some conflicting ideologies at the conference an inevitability, but Mr Starmer’s decision not to sign the agreement has been interpreted as siding with the US’ more lenient approach to AI regulation, compared to that touted by Mr Macron.
The French Prime Minister called for more “smart regulation” on the emerging technology on a global scale and insisted there was a “need for rules” to ensure the safe development of AI while addressing attendees.
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However, Mr Vance, who attended in lieu of President , said too much regulation could “kill a transformative industry just as it’s taking off”.
“We feel very strongly that AI must remain free from ideological bias and that American AI will not be co-opted into a tool for authoritarian censorship,” the VP added.
The UK Prime Minister said he was “not choosing between the US and the EU” when asked about President Trump’s threat of trade tariffs on the bloc last month – insisting that both relationships were “important” after Mr Trump hinted that a separate deal could be “worked out” with Britain.
The previous Conservative Government under hosted the first global AI summit at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire in November 2023.
Some industry experts have sounded the alarm over the UK’s abstention from the latest agreement.
Andrew Dudfield, head of AI at the fact-checking charity Full Fact, said the Government risked “undercutting its hard-won credibility as a world leader for safe, ethical and trustworthy AI innovation”.