There’s an election next month in the UK and I’m conflicted on who to vote for. Usually I vote Green for their position on factory farming, but this time I’m contemplating voting Conservative, purely because Sunak seems to take AI risk seriously.
The current Conservative government organised an AI safety summit last year, and has directed funds towards safety research. Sunak also has an interview on Youtube that I thought showed an impressive understanding of AI research for a political leader. A lot of commentators say the current UK government is the world leader on AI regulation/safety and I’m not confident the opposition party (Labour) would continue that track record.
I don’t have strong opinions on how important AI safety is, but people I respect, particularly Scott Alexander, seem to think it’s the most important thing currently happening and Deep Mind is located in London, so the UK’s AI policies will have non-zero impact on alignment.
Otherwise, there’s nothing I find appealing about the Conservatives, and definitely wouldn’t say they’re aligned with EA values.
I’m interested in if this is a major consideration for any other EAs voting in the UK, and whether anyone thinks it would be myopic to let AI safety override all other issues in the election.
[Question] UK election and AI safety, who to vote for?
Hi everyone.
There’s an election next month in the UK and I’m conflicted on who to vote for. Usually I vote Green for their position on factory farming, but this time I’m contemplating voting Conservative, purely because Sunak seems to take AI risk seriously.
The current Conservative government organised an AI safety summit last year, and has directed funds towards safety research. Sunak also has an interview on Youtube that I thought showed an impressive understanding of AI research for a political leader. A lot of commentators say the current UK government is the world leader on AI regulation/safety and I’m not confident the opposition party (Labour) would continue that track record.
I don’t have strong opinions on how important AI safety is, but people I respect, particularly Scott Alexander, seem to think it’s the most important thing currently happening and Deep Mind is located in London, so the UK’s AI policies will have non-zero impact on alignment.
Otherwise, there’s nothing I find appealing about the Conservatives, and definitely wouldn’t say they’re aligned with EA values.
I’m interested in if this is a major consideration for any other EAs voting in the UK, and whether anyone thinks it would be myopic to let AI safety override all other issues in the election.