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Britain will host the first major international summit on the risks posed by artificial intelligence this autumn with China set to attend.

Amid warnings that humanity could lose control of super-intelligent systems, Rishi Sunak hopes the summit can agree safety measures.

Mr Sunak is expected to raise the issue of AI during his discussions with US President Joe Biden at the White House tomorrow.

Tech companies, researchers and key countries will meet at the summit to consider the risks of AI and discuss how they can be mitigated through internationally coordinated action.

But in a controversial move, China will be invited to the summit, with British officials suggesting it should be around the table due to the huge size of the country's AI industry.

The move which Downing Street refused to rule out risks setting Mr Sunak on another collision course with Tory MPs who are demanding the Government takes a stronger line on Beijing.

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said he was 'uneasy' about the prospect of Chinese officials attending the summit.

He said: 'They have continuously signed up to agreements such as the World Trade Organisation and then gone on to trash them.'

UK director of the World Uyghur Congress, Rahima Mahmut, said: 'It is a shocking decision because we have been campaigning for the Government to get rid of high-tech Chinese creations like Hikvision.

'This sort of technology is used to round up and criminalise Uyghur people. It makes my blood boil to think they can be invited to discuss AI at No 10.'

Under plans being drawn up, the summit will be attended by industry chiefs and heads of state, raising the prospect of Chinese premier Xi Jinping travelling to Britain.

There are no plans to invite Russia due to its invasion of Ukraine and because it is not a major AI player.

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'It's for like-minded countries who share the recognition that AI offers significant opportunities but to realise those we need to make sure the right guardrails are in place.'

Asked if it was open to China, the spokesman said: 'We will set out the invites in due course.'

Mr Sunak this evening stressed the need to ensure the technology is developed and used in a 'safe and secure' way, following fears that AI could launch cyberattacks or threaten democracy by propagating mass disinformation.

'AI has an incredible potential to transform our lives for the better,' the PM said. 'But we need to make sure it is developed and used in a way that is safe and secure. No one country can do this alone.

'This is going to take a global effort. But with our vast expertise and commitment to an open, democratic international system, the UK will stand together with our allies to lead the way.'

Asked why other nations should listen to a mid-sized country such as Britain on AI regulation, Mr Sunak said the UK was the 'only country other than the US that has brought together the three leading companies with large language models'.

He added: 'You would be hard pressed to find many other countries other than the US in the Western world with more expertise and talent in AI. We are the natural place to lead the conversation.'

Britain is a world leader in AI, ranking third behind the US and China. The technology contributes 3.7billion to the UK economy and employs 50,000 people.

This week the Prime Minister's AI taskforce adviser warned that world leaders could have just two years left to stop computers getting out of control.

Matt Clifford said that without urgent international regulation, a deadly bio weapon could be developed that could kill 'many humans'.

But the tech entrepreneur said while the rising capability of AI was 'striking', it was not 'inevitable' that computers would become cleverer than humans.

Last week, a group of 350 experts warned that AI needed to be treated as an existential threat on a par with nuclear weapons.

It comes as US tech giant Palantir announced it will make the UK its new European headquarters for AI development.

The company said: 'London is a magnet for the best software engineering talent in the world, and it is the natural choice as the hub for our European efforts to develop the most effective and ethical AI software solutions.'

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Britain to host the first major international summit on the threat posed by AI - Daily Mail