Meta’s Nick Clegg tears into Rishi Sunak’s AI doomerism

LONDON — Meta exec Nick Clegg criticized the U.K. for focusing on the downsides of artificial intelligence rather than championing the emerging technology.

Speaking on a podcast released Thursday, Clegg — a former British deputy prime minister — said it had been an “odd choice” for Rishi Sunak to hold a summit focusing on AI safety rather than the potential of the technology to improve public services.

“I think we wasted a huge amount of time going down blind alleys, assuming that this technology was going to eliminate humanity and we’re all going to be zapped by a robot with glowing red eyes,” Meta’s president of global affairs said of the Tory ex-prime minister’s approach to the tech.

Last November, the U.K. hosted world leaders and tech execs for a summit at Bletchley Park focused on the risks AI poses to national security, including through cyberattacks or bioterrorism.

Clegg, who served as Britain’s deputy PM from 2010-2015, said he “broadly agreed” with the argument pushed by Tony Blair that AI is the most likely solution to ills like ailing public services, government inefficiency and a stagnant economy. Blair, a former Labour prime minister, is deeply influential on the new Labour administration that replaced Sunak’s government this summer.

Asked whether Britain had a chance to be more nimble on tech regulation now that it is out of the EU, which recently passed a sweeping new law on AI, Clegg said he had “never personally understood” why jurisdictions were keen to be the first to legislate.

“What’s the point of being a regulatory leader if you’re not a leader in innovation and job creation and improved public services. Because these are the things that actually matter to society,” Clegg said.

Broadsides

Clegg’s broadsides come after the founder of German AI lab Aleph Alpha, Jonas Andrulis, also had a dig at AI doomers, saying that the fears around the existential risks of AI “had not come true.” He was speaking at the unveiling of Tortoise’s annual Global AI Index on Thursday.

Andrulis sang from the same hymn sheet on regulation too, lamenting that Europe had not poured as much energy into innovating as it had lawmaking.

“We should not just focus on regulation or safety while the U.S. and China and Southeast Asia are overtaking us and kind of leaving us behind,” the German said.

Speaking at the same event, a top Competition and Markets Authority official also voiced concern at the U.K.’s focus on AI safety, saying that it was seemingly coming at the cost of promoting “responsible AI” — a notion that encompasses issues like fairness, transparency, privacy and inclusivity.

Jessica Lennard, chief strategy officer at the U.K. watchdog, said the refocusing of the policy debate from the concept of responsible AI to safety had left “a real serious lacuna” in areas like AI liability and accountability, which “tend not to be covered explicitly in that AI safety conversation.” 

Lennard said the trend was “potentially concerning,” and stressed that the debate should focus on both areas.