The Pause AI group in Parliament Square at the weekend

CAMPAIGNERS against AI staged a protest with a warning.

Around 20 members of the Pause AI group met in Parliament Square on Sunday to demand a temporary stop to development of advanced intelligent AI systems.

Proper safety regulations are required to keep AI under democratic control, they say.

Joseph Miller, who co-hosted the protest, said: “Governments are racing ahead with no consent from society.

“There is a general sense that people don’t have control over how things are going to affect their future.”

The group is calling for a “AI Pause Treaty” to be agreed by key decision-makers who met at a summit in Paris this week. A leaked draft of the summit statement was released last week showing very little progress on attention to safety regulations.

Mr Miller added: “We really want the British government would show international leadership regarding AI safety, especially since the UK’s AI safety institute is the biggest in the world.”

Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer did not attend.

Mr Miller and fellow campaigner Alistair Stewart launched the first ever UK Pause AI protest, almost two years ago, outside the HQ of Google’s DeepMind company in King’s Cross.

They set up a table and PauseAI banner, handing out academic papers and chocolate brownies.

For more information and details on how to join the movement, visit https://pauseai.info/