UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak flew in toWashington late Tuesday lobbying for Britain to take a lead role inregulating artificial intelligence, after a dire warning of the technology'sexistential dangers.
Sunak will meet President Joe Biden on Thursday for a White House summit,
pledging unstinting support for Ukraine after Russia was accused of blowingup a major dam to thwart an apparent counter-offensive.
Any intentional attack on the Kakhovka dam would represent "the largestattack on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine since the start of the war, andjust would demonstrate the new lows that we would have seen from Russianaggression," Sunak told reporters aboard his plane from London.
But while the United States and Britain are inching closer on giving Ukraineair support, and on a robust approach to China, Sunak faces a harder sellwith Biden about the UK's post-Brexit relevance elsewhere.
The need for a coordinated response on AI was underlined by Downing Streettask force advisor Matt Clifford, who warned the chances of the fast-learningsystems wiping out humanity within two years were "not zero."
Interviewed on TalkTV, he said the world needed "to regulate them on a global
scale, because it's not enough I think to regulate them nationally."
Sunak wants a future global AI regulator to be based in London, according to
sources, arguing Britain has the requisite expertise and size of tech sector.But it is pushing uphill as the United States talks directly to the EuropeanUnion about AI regulation, to build on a pledge by G7 leaders including Sunakin Japan last month.
And Sunak, who meets US business leaders before Thursday's summit, has given
up on securing a post-Brexit trade deal with the Biden administration anytime soon.
- 'Battlefield advantage' -
En route to Washington, the prime minister announced cumulative US investment
of more than o14 billion ($17 billion) into Britain -- although some of thathas already been deployed.
Underlining the US-UK military alliance at the heart of NATO, Sunak saidtheir economic relationship should also be deployed to defend Westerndemocracy.
"By combining our vast economic resources and expertise, we will grow our
economies, create jobs and keep our people safe long into the future," saidthe prime minister, a wealthy former banker who studied in the United Statesand retains a property in California.
"Just as interoperability between our militaries has given us a battlefieldadvantage over our adversaries, greater economic interoperability will giveus a crucial edge in the decades ahead."
Sunak is pushing for US relief to UK carmakers, via greater access tocritical minerals used in electric batteries, after Biden's InflationReduction Act offered vast subsidies to US companies.
On the NATO front, Sunak has been talking up Defence Secretary Ben Wallace as
the Western alliance seeks a new secretary-general at a summit in Lithuanianext month.
"I have absolutely zero doubt that the war in Ukraine will be a prime issueof discussion" in Thursday's summit, US National Security Council spokesmanJohn Kirby said.
"And the Brits have been right there -- literally at the fore in terms ofhelping Ukraine," he added.
"I have no doubt that they'll talk about ways in which we can work togethergoing forward."
- No home run -
On Wednesday, Sunak will lay a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery outside
Washington before heading to Capitol Hill for talks with leaders in Congress.
He will then watch the Washington Nationals play the Arizona Diamondbacks for
the second annual "UK-US Friendship Day", marking 238 years of diplomatic
relations.
But Sunak, a keen cricketer, has ducked the opportunity to throw theceremonial first pitch at the baseball game -- sparing his blushes if thethrow goes astray in front of tens of thousands.
After transatlantic disputes over trade and Northern Ireland, Sunak hopes toscore better with Biden than his controversial predecessors Boris Johnson andLiz Truss.
"The relationship is very strong on the fundamentals: defense, security,developing policy on China," commented Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the USand Americas Programme at the Chatham House think tank in London.
But on specifics such as AI and trade, Biden is unlikely to give much awayheading into a crunch election year, she told AFP.