The recently published Bletchley Declaration is unlikely to stir the public consciousness in much the same way as, say, the Gettysburg Address. Indeed, you could be forgiven for thinking that the 1,137-word treatise – if that’s the right word – was cobbled together using ChatGPT. It’s chock-a-block with the sort of nebulous fall-back terminology favoured by technocrats: “human-centric”, “sustainable”, “explainability [sic]” – that sort of thing.
The main takeaway from the document is that a global response will be required to deal with the rapid spread of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. No surprise then that the US duly took unilateral action via a Presidential executive order requiring tech firms to submit test results for AI systems to the government before they are released to the public.
What Alan Turing would have made of the summit is anyone’s guess. But it’s worth remembering that technological innovation moves at a far more rapid pace than the regulatory frameworks designed to control it – for good or ill we’re already caught up in the AI maelstrom. The mandarins at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) seem aware that there is an inherent lag at play, but the regulator’s public pronouncements make it clear that it will take a “principles-based approach to the regulation”, intervening on the regulatory front only where necessary, thereby enabling companies to innovate “while protecting consumers and market integrity”.