US to host first AI safety network summit as nations seek alignment on policy

The U.S. will host an artificial intelligence (AI) safety summit in November, aiming to further align top nations on their tech goals and priorities of collaboration among the international community. 

‘AI is the defining technology of our generation,’ U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a press release. 

‘With AI evolving at a rapid pace, we at the Department of Commerce, and across the Biden-Harris administration, are pulling every lever. That includes close, thoughtful coordination with our allies and like-minded partners,’ she said. 

‘We want the rules of the road on AI to be underpinned by safety, security and trust, which is why this convening is so important.’

The U.S. AI Safety Summit will take place after November’s presidential election and is separate from the series of safety summits hosted by the U.K. and South Korea. Another summit is planned for France next year.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Raimondo will host the summit in San Francisco between Nov. 20-21, convening the International Network of AI Safety Institutes, which nations aimed to establish after the South Korea summit. 

The network so far includes Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Kenya, South Korea, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States, according to Reuters. 

Chief among their concerns remains the use of generative AI to create forgeries in a variety of materials, including election-related items such as ads and pictures. A recent example included Taylor Swift AI-generated images that prompted her to speak out and declare her pick for president. 

Deepfake videos have also proven a prevalent and complicating factor in elections, such as when a Turkish presidential candidate last year claimed a leaked sex tape was actually an AI-edited video with his face placed over an actor’s face in a pornographic video. 

Blinken touted the AI network as a step toward greater safety and security, as well as the potential to harness AI to achieve greater goals. 

‘Strengthening international collaboration on AI safety is critical to harnessing AI technology to solve the world’s greatest challenges,’ Blinken said in a press release. ‘The AI Safety Network stands as a cornerstone of this effort.’

The summit will also invite experts from related fields, including academia and the tech industry, to join certain events and weigh in with ‘robust’ views and developments to help keep officials up to date on the rapidly evolving sector. 

The White House and Department of Commerce referred Fox News Digital to the joint department statement on the summit when asked for comment.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.