Hello and welcome to Eye on AI. In this edition…Politicians don't want to talk about AI Safety anymore; Nvidia lashes out at Biden's last minute export control regime; Microsoft offers lessons from red teaming AI models; We wanted AGI. Did we end up with BSI instead?
Back when I covered finance, traders would talk about whether the markets were “risk off”—fearful of losses and retreating to the safest assets—or “risk on,” pouring money into riskier equities in the hopes of earning big returns. Well, when it comes to AI, 2025 is certainly shaping up as a “risk on” period.
This vibe shift is perhaps most notable in the U.K., where I live. The previous Conservative Party-led British government tried to make a name for itself on AI policy by hosting an international conference aimed at addressing AI’s potential doomsday risks. The AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in November 2023 brought together the heads of leading AI companies along with diplomats from 28 nations to discuss a shared approach to identifying AI risks and building mechanisms to prevent them. Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also created the world’s first AI Safety Institute to test leading AI models for potential dangers. But yesterday, the Labour Party government of Keir Starmer, which was elected in July, endorsed an “AI Opportunities Action Plan” that is all about how the country can move at speed to embrace AI and hopefully use it to boost Britain’s moribund economy. In fact, in its official announcement, Starmer’s government said the plan “mainlines AI into the veins” of the U.K. economy.
