Rishi Sunak says AI should not be viewed as a threat to workers’ jobs ahead of meeting with Elon Musk – as it happened

5.33pm GMT

Afternoon summary

• Rishi Sunak has insisted that workers should not view AI as a threat to their jobs. He made the comment in a press conference at the end of his AI safety summit (see 4.21pm) where he also announced the creation of an AI Safety Institute to “carefully test new types of frontier AI before and after they are released to address the potentially harmful capabilities of AI models”. And he said governments and companies have agreed a new strategy on AI safety testing. In a news release summarising it, No 10 says:

In a statement on testing, governments and AI companies have recognised that both parties have a crucial role to play in testing the next generation of AI models, to ensure AI safety – both before and after models are deployed.

This includes collaborating on testing the next generation of AI models against a range of potentially harmful capabilities, including critical national security, safety and societal harms.

They have agreed governments have a role in seeing that external safety testing of frontier AI models occurs, marking a move away from responsibility for determining the safety of frontier AI models sitting solely with the companies.

• Matt Hancock told officials that he – rather than the medical profession – “should ultimately decide who should live or die”, if the NHS was overwhelmed during the pandemic, the Covid inquiry has been told by the former head of NHS England.

• Chris Wormald, the permanent secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care, has told the Covid inquiry that a full lockdown may have been avoided if the government had issued its non-statutory stay at home request earlier. (See 3.18pm.) The inquiry was also shown a message from Mark Sedwill, the then cabinet secretary, showing that on 12 March 2020 – less than a week before Boris Johnson ordered the nation to stay at home – Sedwill was pushing a “herd immunity” strategy and saying “we want people to get [Covid]” (just not all at once). (See 2.59pm.)

• Andy McDonald, the suspended Labour MP, has said he’s suing the Conservative MP Chris Clarkson, who accused him of “seeking to justify the murderous actions of Hamas” in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Updated at 5.41pm GMT

5.22pm GMT

Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister, has described the AI safety summit as “a great success for the UK”, Christina Gallardo from Sifted reports.

Was it a mistake not to invite more AI startups to the #AISafetySummit?
“I strongly believe this summit has been a great success for the UK and for the prime minister Rishi Sunak,” @BrunoLeMaire replies.

Was it a mistake not to invite more AI startups to the #AISafetySummit?
"I strongly believe this summit has been a great success for the UK and for the prime minister Rishi Sunak," @BrunoLeMaire replies.

— Cristina Gallardo (@gallardo_ortega) November 2, 2023