Joe Biden is not expected to attend Rishi Sunak’s flagship AI conference in a major “embarrassment” for the British Prime Minister.
The U.S. president is set to miss the global summit this fall even though Sunak has boasted how America and the UK are closely cooperating on regulating the tech. Biden may be replaced with the Vice President Kamala Harris at the event, which is set to be held on Nov. 1 and 2 at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, renowned as the home of British codebreaking during World War II.
If Biden doesn’t turn up, Whitehall sources say the decision will be seen as a blow to the Tory leader. Labor warned Sunak “risks embarrassment on the world stage” by mounting the conference without Biden, and said the summit “looks to fall before it’s even begun.”
While with Biden in June, Sunak said the pair were aligned in wanting to discuss potential “guardrails” about AI with other nations.
Other attendees have not yet been confirmed, with uncertainty over how China will be represented at the event. But the Telegraph says it is understood that all the other G7 leaders, including French president Emmanuel Macron and Canada’s leader Justin Trudeau will be invited. It is also not known whether tech entrepreneurs such as Mark Zuckerberg, head of Meta, or Elon Musk, who owns X, will be on the list.
Downing Street has said that the summit will bring together a number of key countries, leading tech firms and researchers.
