The UK will host the world’s first summit on artificial intelligence safety this week, bringing government and industry leaders together at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire.It was here during the Second World War that British codebreakers, including Alan Turing, used early forms of computer intelligence – cryptanalytical machines called Bombes – to break the Enigma code used by the Nazis to encrypt messages, changing the course of the war and saving millions of lives in the process.
Their work enabled British intelligence to move more quickly and act upon the information the Bletchley team gave them, contributing to a number of key military victories during the war. When Bletchley Park was confirmed as the location for the summit earlier this year, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said because of the UK’s history as “home to transformative technologies of the future” there was “no better place” to host the first ever summit on global AI safety.