AI Safety Summit
In plain wordsA series of international meetings of governments, AI companies and researchers, begun in England in 2023, to agree on how to handle the risks and benefits of the most advanced AI.
A series of international summits on advanced AI. The first, the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, United Kingdom, on 1–2 November 2023, produced the Bletchley DeclarationBletchley Declaration, prop. n.: A short statement signed by 28 countries and the European Union at the first global AI safety summit, held in England in 2023, agreeing that the most advanced AI could cause serious harm., agreements by leading developers to give governments access to test models before release, the commissioning of the International AI Safety ReportInternational AI Safety Report, prop. n.: A large scientific review, led by the computer scientist Yoshua Bengio and backed by more than 30 countries, summing up what is known about what advanced AI can do and how it could go wrong., and the launch of the UK and US AI safety institutesAI Safety Institute, n.: A government agency that tests the most advanced AI models for dangerous abilities and studies how to make them safe. Britain and the United States set up the first ones in 2023.. The AI Seoul Summit (May 2024, co-hosted by South Korea and the UK) yielded the Seoul Declaration, a plan to network the safety institutes and the Frontier AI Safety CommitmentsFrontier AI Safety Commitments, prop. n.: Promises made in 2024 by major AI companies to publish safety plans for their most advanced models, including the danger points at which they would stop if the risks could not be controlled. of 16 companies. France's AI Action Summit (Paris, February 2025) widened the agenda to public-interest AI, energy and the economy; the United States and the United Kingdom declined to sign its statement on inclusive and sustainable AI. India's AI Impact Summit (New Delhi, February 2026), the first hosted in the Global South, ended on 21 February with a non-binding New Delhi Declaration signed by more than 80 countries, including the United States and China.
Each AI summit since Bletchley has said less about catastrophic risk and more about adoption.
Origin
Announced by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in June 2023 and held at Bletchley Park, the Second World War code-breaking center. 'AI Safety Summit' was the official name of the first meeting only, but is widely used for the series. A further summit was announced for Geneva, Switzerland, in 2027.
Usage note
The successive names — safety, action, impact — are widely read as a shift in priorities from managing frontier risks toward adoption and competitiveness, a shift mirrored in the UK institute's 2025 renaming as the AI Security Institute.
Related
- Bletchley DeclarationBletchley Declaration, prop. n.: A short statement signed by 28 countries and the European Union at the first global AI safety summit, held in England in 2023, agreeing that the most advanced AI could cause serious harm.
- Frontier AI Safety CommitmentsFrontier AI Safety Commitments, prop. n.: Promises made in 2024 by major AI companies to publish safety plans for their most advanced models, including the danger points at which they would stop if the risks could not be controlled.
- International AI Safety ReportInternational AI Safety Report, prop. n.: A large scientific review, led by the computer scientist Yoshua Bengio and backed by more than 30 countries, summing up what is known about what advanced AI can do and how it could go wrong.
- AI Safety InstituteAI Safety Institute, n.: A government agency that tests the most advanced AI models for dangerous abilities and studies how to make them safe. Britain and the United States set up the first ones in 2023.
- frontier AIfrontier AI, n.: The most capable general-purpose AI systems of the moment — those at or beyond the leading edge — which governments single out for extra safety attention.
- AI governanceAI governance, n.: The rules, institutions and habits that shape how AI is built and used — from laws and treaties to technical standards and a company's own review processes.
Mentioned in
AI governanceAI governance, n.: The rules, institutions and habits that shape how AI is built and used — from laws and treaties to technical standards and a company's own review processes., AI Safety InstituteAI Safety Institute, n.: A government agency that tests the most advanced AI models for dangerous abilities and studies how to make them safe. Britain and the United States set up the first ones in 2023., frontier AIfrontier AI, n.: The most capable general-purpose AI systems of the moment — those at or beyond the leading edge — which governments single out for extra safety attention., frontier modelfrontier model, n.: One of the most capable AI models in existence at a given time, built by a handful of leading labs at great cost, and the main target of AI safety rules., Bletchley DeclarationBletchley Declaration, prop. n.: A short statement signed by 28 countries and the European Union at the first global AI safety summit, held in England in 2023, agreeing that the most advanced AI could cause serious harm., Executive Order 14110Executive Order 14110, prop. n.: A sweeping 2023 order by US President Joe Biden that told federal agencies how to manage AI risks and required makers of the largest AI models to report their safety tests to the government. It was revoked in 2025., Frontier AI Safety CommitmentsFrontier AI Safety Commitments, prop. n.: Promises made in 2024 by major AI companies to publish safety plans for their most advanced models, including the danger points at which they would stop if the risks could not be controlled., frontier labfrontier lab, n.: One of the handful of companies building the most advanced AI models of the moment, spending billions of dollars on computing power to train them., Global Digital CompactGlobal Digital Compact, prop. n.: A 2024 agreement among United Nations member countries setting shared goals for the digital world — closing digital divides, protecting rights online, governing data and AI — and creating new UN bodies on AI., International AI Safety ReportInternational AI Safety Report, prop. n.: A large scientific review, led by the computer scientist Yoshua Bengio and backed by more than 30 countries, summing up what is known about what advanced AI can do and how it could go wrong., Statement on AI RiskStatement on AI Risk, prop. n.: A one-sentence public statement from May 2023, signed by hundreds of leading AI scientists and company heads, declaring that guarding against the chance of AI wiping out humanity should rank as a priority for the whole world., Global Dialogue on AI GovernanceGlobal Dialogue on AI Governance, prop. n.: A yearly United Nations meeting, launched in 2025, where all countries — joined by companies, researchers and civil society — discuss how to cooperate on governing AI., PauseAIPauseAI, prop. n.: A volunteer protest movement, begun in 2023, that pickets AI companies and lobbies governments for a worldwide treaty halting work on AI more advanced than today's best until it is proven safe., World AI Cooperation OrganizationWorld AI Cooperation Organization, prop. n.: An international organization for cooperation on AI, based in Shanghai, set up in 2026 by an agreement among 29 countries on China's initiative.