Meta, Google, OpenAI and Anthropic to face MPs amid AI safety concerns
The House of Commons Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee invited leaders from the tech firms to provide evidence at an urgent hearing amid concerns that the UK's current approach is 'not fit for the future'
MPs have summoned Meta, Google, OpenAI and Anthropic to face them amid rising safety concerns, warning the UK’s current approach to the threat is “not fit for the future”.
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The House of Commons Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee invited leaders from the tech firms to provide evidence at an urgent hearing on October 13th, as the government concludes its inquiry into the country’s economic strategy for AI.
As part of the hearings, MPs will analyse whether firms should be required to submit their AI models to independent safety testing before they are able to release them.
This will hamstring the ability of the companies to determine for themselves whether their systems are powerful enough to warrant scrutiny.
The hearings will also be used to determine whether companies accept compulsory reporting of serious safety incidents, including deceptive behaviour by AIs, and evidence of loss of human control.
MPs will also investigate what kinds of international requirements there should be to avoid a “race to the bottom” in the industry, which is currently dominated by the US and China.
The committee wrote to the four tech giants, saying that in their analysis of AI security and safety, and economic concerns around AI, the core issue they had uncovered was trust.
Chairman Liam Byrne wrote that “warnings of industry leaders and whistleblowers in recent weeks have demonstrated that the UK’s public policy framework and international agreements are not yet fit for the future”.
The firms have been asked to confirm by September 29th whether they will send representatives to the panel and to provide written responses in advance of the committee’s questions.
This comes as whistleblowers from AI firm Anthropic warned that artificial intelligence posed an existential threat to human life.
Earlier this month, Anthropic engineer Jacob Coxon resigned, saying that the people building superintelligence “believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade”.
Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark warned regulations on AI are desperately needed to fend off its “exponential” threat before time runs out - after Donald Trump branded concerns over the tech “sick conspiracies”.
Clark has become the latest tech leader to back calls for tougher safeguards around artificial intelligence, which were first made by Anthropic boss Dario Amodei.
Earlier this week, a host of other leading industry figures, including Grok boss Elon Musk and Open AI co-founder Sam Altman, backed Amodei's calls and warned the technology is developing at a pace that could outstrip efforts to keep it under control.
“What we're saying here is we need to get a sensible, common-sense safety framework in place for the industry so that Americans can have confidence in the technology that we're building and we don't roll the dice on some kind of accident,” Clark said in an interview with Fox News.
He pointed out that rogue AI agents have already hacked into rival systems without any human prompts.
Clark continued: “What we're talking about here is the need to have some equivalent set of safety standards for the AI sector."
"The worst time to react to an exponential [threat] is when it's too late,” he added.
He added that the US risks falling behind China in the AI race if it wait for a major accident to introduce tougher regulation.
“How you keep being ahead is you make sure that you don't roll the dice on public safety,” Clark said.
But his comments come hours after Trump insisted that the only "control" needed to protect from the threats of Artificial Intelligence is a "strong and smart" President.
Mr Trump said on Truth Social that we already have "tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies".
He also slammed the "sick conspiracy" against AI and data centres.
Trump wrote: "The only control or 'guardrails' that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!
"The Trump Administration has stopped AI 'people' from doing bad, or potentially bad, 'things,' like Dario (Anthropic!), who is now pretending to be a 'perfect little angel' - and we will continue to do so! We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies!
"There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China. WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!
"We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so. Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE! Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP."
Amodei, the boss of AI company Anthropic, said on Saturday he was concerned that since this summer, AI has been “advancing drastically faster”.
Given the rate of development, Mr Amodei said he was worried that within six to 12 months, AI could be capable of leading a swarm that could take over the entire internet.
The entrepreneur, whose company is behind the AI assistant Claude, shared a three-part plan for building the technology at a “balanced rate”.
The warning came in an essay, titled We Must Pace The Frontier.