Sir Keir Starmer said that preparations for dealing with the effects of artificial intelligence (AI) are “nowhere near” where they need to be.
The technology, according to the Labour leader, might have significant advantages for the health care system but also result in job losses throughout the economy.
He stated during the London Tech Week conference that a “quite staggering” number of professions may be affected by AI.
With its top universities and businesses like Google DeepMind, Sir Keir claimed that the UK possessed “all the attributes” necessary to succeed in the AI industry.
“But we’re nowhere near where we need to be on the question of regulation.
“There’s a bit of piecemeal, sector-by-sector regulation in the medical field, the legal field, financial services, but we haven’t got an overarching framework.”
Sir Keir opposed the notion of a universal basic income, a state handout for everyone to pay living costs, notwithstanding the possibility of job losses as a result of humans being replaced by AI.
“I’m not attracted to universal basic income,” he said.
“I think that the advantage here would be for AI to take some of the jobs that AI will be able to do and for us to make sure that we can train and retrain and reskill the workforce into other areas.
“That’s where I will put my energy.”
According to Sir Keir, the impact of AI on the labor market might be felt within a few months.
“I think rather than sit and try to identify each and every job that might be affected, and there’s going to be many, I think it’s a sense of: what’s the infrastructure, the framework that a government needs to set up? And are we ready for the speed of this?
“Because I think there’s still a bit of a feeling that AI may affect us in five years, or six or seven years. This is more likely to be in the next 12 months, 18 months.
“So we’ve got to plan for rapid change and at the moment under this Government, we don’t have that infrastructure, that framework in place.”
Governments have been urged by AI experts to put controls in place to ensure that the technology does not endanger humanity’s existence.
Asked whether the technology presented a “Terminator 2-style” threat, the Labour leader said: “I tend to be much more grounded than that.”
However, he agreed that there was a chance that false information might proliferate and lead to a general distrust of information.
However, he agreed that there was a chance that false information might proliferate and lead to a general distrust of information.
“I do think we need to fast-forward on the regulation side,” he said.
Rishi Sunak brought up the subject in conversations with Joe Biden last week and promised to convene a worldwide summit later this year, according to a statement from Downing Street, which defended the government’s approach to AI.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “It’s not a coincidence that the UK is second only to the US in terms of democratic countries leading on artificial intelligence, it is because of the competitive tech sector that we have helped shape through government work.”
