The British government’s AI Safety Institute will open its first overseas office in San Francisco this summer, a move confirmed by Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan.
Announced in a press releaseThe AI Safety Institute’s (AISI) first overseas office will recruit an initial team of technical staff led by a Research Director, complementing the Institute’s growing headquarters in London, which already houses more than 30 experts.
The strategic expansion is designed to take advantage of the technology talent in the SF Bay Area, where many of the world’s leading technology and AI companies are located.
The British AI Safety Institute will operate globally
The London office will continue to scale up risk assessments of advanced AI systems, while the new San Francisco office will facilitate close collaboration between the two countries.
Both Britain and the US have committed to similar AI security agreements, including signing the Bletchley Declaration at a summit hosted by Britain along with 25 other countries and the European Union.
Donelan commented: “(The expansion) marks a pivotal moment in Britain’s ability to study both the risks and potential of AI from a global lens, strengthening our partnership with the US and paving the way for other countries to leverage our expertise as we continue to lead the world in AI safety.”
The United Kingdom and Canada have also committed to a partnership aimed at improving AI security research.
The announcement coincides with the publication of recent AI safety test results by the AISI. In addition to highlighting some technical limitations of large language models, the study also noted that “all tested models remain highly vulnerable to basic ‘jailbreaks’, and some will produce malicious results even without dedicated efforts to bypass security.”
Ian Hogarth, Chairman of AISI, commented: “AI security is still a very young and emerging field… Our ambition is to continue to push the boundaries of this field by developing state-of-the-art assessments, with the emphasis on national security-related risks. .”
The announcement also precedes the AI Seoul Summit 2024, which is seen as a successor of sorts to the UK’s Bletchley Park summit in November 2023. International governments, AI companies, academia and civil society are expected to come together to continue discussions on AI safety. .