Pause AI protesters at Bletchley Park

IT looks like the whole of the park has been cocooned in one big metal cage.

When we tried to walk up to Bletchley Park on Wednesday – where prime minister Rishi Sunak’s Artificial Intelligence [AI] Safety Summit was being held – to catch a glimpse of tech billionaires like Elon Musk and foreign dignitaries like US vice president Kamala Harris, we couldn’t even make it close enough to see the grass.

With the rain beating down against the backdrop of high metal fences and road blocks, you couldn’t help but think about an evil tech genius behind the curtain, creating technology, or “super-intelligence” as some like to call it, that might just be able to take over the world.

It’s the main thing that Mr Sunak’s safety summit is supposed to be addressing – how can this kind of technology be monitored to make sure it doesn’t cause us harm?

AI can already perform functions that we associate with the human brain – this can be anything from making coherent arguments, to driving a car, or recognising faces.

The thing is, the world now knows how to make AI, but even the scientists who build it can’t tell you how it will all pan out.

Certain kinds of AI, ChatGPT for example, run on something called an artificial neural network which is modelled on the human brain and trained to detect and predict patterns over time.

This means it essentially trains itself, and sceptics argue that those behind a rapidly expanding industry don’t really understand how it does that.

This unpredictability and the need to sift all the good things that the tech may be able to do from the bad is what led protesters to demonstrate outside the summit.

The Pause AI movement are calling for development to be braked until we all understand exactly what’s going on.  “Don’t race if you don’t know how to steer” read their placards as tens of police on bikes, horses and on foot mill around the borders of the park.

“I’m really worried. I’ve got a little sister, she’s eight years old,” said Kabir Kumar, a PauseAI protester.

“I would like her to live to become an adult. That’s not something I feel like we’re on track for at the moment, and I really want that to change,”

He is convinced that AI is going to kill us, and is sceptical of the idea that the result of this summit will be enough to protect us.

Mr Kumar added: “Whatever intelligence we make, which is smarter than humans, will not be aligned with humans, and will quickly, I think, take all the resources humans need to survive. Or, it won’t particularly care about the conditions humans need to survive and will create conditions that are unlivable for humans.

“Like, creating some kind of nuclear winter so that it can cool down the planet and cool down its servers.”

Bletchley once held a reputation for innovation, and Bletchley Park is where Alan Turing and others cracked the enigma code during World War II, helping the allied powers to victory against the Nazis.

But people we spoke to in the town this week were already worried about the working world, even before the threat of AI on jobs

John Angus, who lives there and was passing by, said: “There’s no work here. Nothing new – just nail bars and takeaways. I reckon AI is going to take over. Remember The Terminator?”

Last night (Thursday), Mr Sunak was due to do a live stream talk with Mr Musk, the owner of the X social media platform, previously known as Twitter.

“It’s important not to be alarmist,” warned the prime minister after emerging from the security of Bletchley’s protective cage of metal fences. www.youtube.com/@peepsonline

• Our visit to the… gates of the Artificial Intelligence Summit this week was part of our new online channel covering unusual, alternative events and issues ­– not always confined to the boroughs of Islington and Camden. The aim is to broaden our award-winning independent journalism and open up debates and discussion. A film about the summit will follow – but there’s already lots to watch. Take a look now! www.youtube.com/@peepsonline