The power of AI is worrying senior Labour figures – as is the fear of ‘falling behind the public’

Westminster appears to be waking up to warnings over AI safety, with concerns over its use by extremist groups and bad actors… “I have this sense that, within a few months, AI is going to be all anyone is talking about,” said one cabinet minister, with an ominous stare. It was Labour conference, with everyone from ministers to activists jubilant at Andy Burnham’s takeover and a bounce in the polls after the change of leader.

But a number of senior Labour figures were privately starting to name the power of AI as the thing worrying them most, alongside the immediate pressures on the cost of living and fragile economy. One cabinet minister – with a brief unrelated to technology – told the Guardian that dangerous, out-of-control AI was the issue keeping them up at night, fretting about the threat to humanity.

It was “not killer robots” causing the worry, they explained, but the idea of a huge amount of concentrated, super-intelligent power potentially ending up in the hands of bad actors. Another expressed concern that the government was “falling behind…