Tom Gordon MP joins calls for PM to host emergency AI summit

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Tom Gordon joined fellow Liberal Democrat MPs Victoria Collins, Sarah Olney and Lisa Smart in urging the Prime Minister to fast-track the AI Bill promised in the 2024 King’s Speech and convene an emergency AI summit.

In a letter, the MPs said the government should build on the King’s previous warnings about the “existential” risks posed by AI if the technology falls into the wrong hands.

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“This technology isn’t going to wait for Whitehall’s usual timetable, and neither should we” (Image: Supplied)

Mr Gordon said: “Lib Dem colleagues are right to push for this, and I back them wholeheartedly.

“The government promised an AI Bill in the King’s Speech back in 2024. We’re still waiting.

“An Emergency AI Summit would force the pace. This technology isn’t going to wait for Whitehall’s usual timetable, and neither should we.

“I’d urge the Prime Minister to act on this without further delay.”

A government spokesperson said the UK recognised the need to ensure its approach keeps pace with “rapidly evolving” AI technology.

They said: “These risks cross borders, so we are working closely with the companies developing the most advanced systems, and with our allies and international partners.

“That includes building a rigorous, scientific understanding of the capabilities of the most advanced AI systems and the risks they pose through our AI Security Institute.”

‘The government must take action’

The AI Security Institute is a government research body responsible for evaluating safeguards for advanced AI models.

Concerns intensified after leaders of xAI, Anthropic and OpenAI called for greater global co-operation, including between the US and China, as well as independent oversight to ensure AI models remain aligned with human values and were kept under human control.

The MPs have called on the Prime Minister to fast-track an AI Bill promised in the King’s Speech in 2024 and convene an emergency AI summit in response to calls from AI leaders about the risks associated without regulation (Image: Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Liberal Democrat MP Victoria Collins said in the letter: “When the people building this technology, who have every commercial incentive to press ahead, tell us they are afraid of what they are building, the government must take action.”

They argued that the UK was in a “unique position” to bring together nations as a global technology leader and trusted international partner.

Mr Gordon said: “I’ve just spent months sitting on the Joint Committee on Human Rights inquiry into AI regulation, hearing evidence on exactly this.

“The picture that emerged was stark: AI is already being used to profile people, screen job applications and scan people’s faces in public without consent – and when it goes wrong, people have no real way to challenge it or get redress.”

In response, a government spokesperson said: “We should not assume that the existing framework will always be sufficient as AI capabilities develop.

“Any future measures will be evidence-based and focused on whether they will make the British people safer, and as the AI Minister has set out: nothing is off the table.”