At the recent Labour party conference, a cabinet minister whose brief is unrelated to technology told The Guardian that dangerous, out-of-control AI poses a threat to humanity. The minister said the worry is 'not killer robots' but the idea of concentrated super-intelligent power falling into the wrong hands.
Another senior Labour figure expressed concern that the government was 'falling behind the public' in dealing with AI safety fears and needed to 'catch up fast.'
In his conference speech, Ed Miliband was the most strident about the 'daunting' dangers of AI. He argued that politicians could not allow the profits of tech companies to 'come at the expense of our children or indeed humanity.'
The warnings have intensified over the past week, marking what participants described as the moment Westminster fully woke up to the issue. On Monday, AI minister Kanishka Narayan stated that a cyber attack similar to the recent OpenAI Medicare breach 'seems likely' in the UK.
The internal Labour concerns emerge alongside immediate pressures on the cost of living and a fragile economy, with one cabinet minister noting that AI is now one of the things worrying them most.