US announces AI safety summit in San Francisco with global partners in November

)WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 — U.S. officials announced plans Wednesday to hold a global summit on AI safety in November, as authorities scramble to keep pace with the technology’s rapid development.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Secretary of State Antony Blinken will co-host the first meeting of the International Network of AI Safety Institutes on November 20-21 in San Francisco.

“With AI evolving at a rapid pace, we are…pulling all the levers,” Raimondo said in a statement.

“This involves close and thoughtful coordination with our allies and like-minded partners,” she said.

Initial members of the network include Australia, Canada, the European Union, France, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Secretary Raimondo created the group at the Seoul AI Summit in May, with the aim of preparing participating countries to develop better regulation of the sector and coordinate policies.

The move follows the explosive popularity of ChatGPT after its release in 2022, which sparked a global AI race, with tech companies investing billions in generative AI models capable of producing human-like content from simple prompts.

While AI proponents tout its potential to improve lives and businesses, critics warn of the risks of misuse, leading to calls for international standards to govern AI development and use. — ETX Studio