Back on the 26th June in the House of Lords there was a session entitled Artificial Intelligence which can be obtained from here. It was opened by Richard Harries who was the Bishop of Oxford from 1987 – 2006 and is described as Lord Harries of Pentegrath in the House of Lords. He started with “To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking in co-operation with international partners to reach a global agreement on the regulation of advanced forms of artificial intelligence.” The Minister who responded him was Jonathan Berry who is listed as the Viscount of Camrose and a few minutes later the Archbishop of York who is Stephen Cottrell asked this question which was responded by Jonathan Berry.

The Archbishop of York: My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries, for raising this issue. I too believe that the best way for us to find the potential of AI is by paying great attention to regulation and ethics, building on what has just been said. What is best in us is beyond rationality—

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” is not a rational decision. I have a simple question about the autumn summit, which I welcome. Because of the smorgasbord of ethical issues that AI raises, I am slightly concerned—although I may have got this wrong—that the summit will be gathering together business leaders. What about people from civil society? Will they be invited to the summit, and has this been given real consideration in helping us build an ethical framework for regulation?

Viscount Camrose: The most reverend Primate is right to argue that we need a broad field of contributors to the difficult questions around AI ethics. As to the specific attendees and agenda of the AI global summit this autumn, those are to be determined, but we will have, if I may use the phrase, a broad church.