Andy Burnham said he wants the UK to lead the world in developing a set of rules to prevent the spread of rogue artificial intelligence (AI), putting him on a collision course with US President Donald Trump.
The Prime Minister told world leaders he wants the UK to act as an “honest broker” to draw up “a single set of global principles and standards” for the development of frontier AI.
But his speech at the United Nations General Assembly came just hours after Mr Trump told the same event that he would resist attempts to rein in what he called “super intelligence”.
US and Chinese companies are leading the development of AI, with the White House wary of any measure which could see American firms lose ground to their Asian rivals.
Mr Burnham said the UK would use its presidency of the G20 group of advanced economies to push for international agreement on the issue, arguing it was uniquely placed to do so.
“We are America’s closest ally. We have deep ties with our friends in the EU and will deepen them further.
“We work with China and emerging powers like India and Brazil. We sit on the Security Council. In the Commonwealth. In the CPTPP. In a divided world, we have the ability to bring people together – and we will.
“We are going to step into that role. And we are going to start with one of the most significant challenges and opportunities of our age – frontier AI.”
Mr Burnham said AI had immense potential in healthcare, economic growth, transforming education and in defence.
But he acknowledged AI would be a source of disruption to jobs and said warnings from industry insiders about the technology’s potential to pose an existential risk to humanity must be heeded.
“I know how worried people are. So we have to rise to this moment,” he said.
“Fundamental decisions on this technology are too important to be left to chance. They must be taken by elected governments who serve working people.”
Mr Burnham said the UK would 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 Prime Minister has been criticised for not signing up to an initiative aimed at drawing up global rules led by countries including Norway and Finland.
But he said the UK’s G20 plan would “bring together welcome initiatives from others – like that proposed by Norway this week”.
UK officials have made clear to AI firms that the country expects full visibility over new models and developers have been threatened with the use of legislation to ensure transparency.
Mr Trump, who has previously dismissed concerns about AI safety as a “hoax”, told the UN: “The United States totally rejects any attempt to construct a globalist scheme of control for the artificial intelligence being spoken of so much now – hereinafter officially called super intelligence.”
Mr Trump added: “We will only encourage super intelligence.
“We’re going to encourage it, not rein it in. We’re going to watch it closely through the Department of Justice.
“The United States leads the world in super intelligence, and we’ll continue to do so safely and responsibly.”
Meanwhile, Mr Burnham was criticised for not signing the UK up to the Norwegian and Finnish-led initiative while at the UN.
The proposal has the support of more than 20 countries – including Germany, Canada and Ireland.
Former Cabinet minister Darren Jones said the countries were the UK’s “natural allies” and Mr Burnham should have joined them.
Mr Jones, the former chief secretary to previous prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, said: “The UK has special access to American AI models through the AI Security Institute, which is partly why the UK Government will want to remain in lock step with the United States.
“But I don’t see any reason why the UK can’t sign up to the Finnish proposal. I encourage our Government to do so and to offer to broker agreement on its application with the United States.”
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey used his speech at his party’s conference to call for a global treaty to press pause on super-intelligent AI, as well as a new international AI safety agency.
Meanwhile, tech giants Meta, Google, OpenAI and Anthropic have been called to give evidence to MPs as they examine questions including whether firms should be legally required to submit their AI models to independent safety testing before deploying them.
The House of Commons Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee has invited representatives from the companies to give evidence at an urgent hearing on October 13, as it concludes its inquiry into the UK’s economic strategy for AI.
The panel will also consider topics such as whether companies accept mandatory reporting of serious safety incidents, including deceptive behaviour by AIs, and evidence of loss of human control.
The companies have been asked to confirm by September 29 whether they will send representatives to the hearing and to provide written responses to the committee’s questions in advance.
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