At UN debut, Andy Burnham pushes global AI rules and Palestine action

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, in his first address to the UN General Assembly, called for global standards to regulate artificial intelligence, saying “fundamental decisions on this technology are too important to be left to chance”. He said the UK would work to persuade countries to adopt rules on transparency and access to AI models, and also push technology companies to sign up to them.

Burnham said AI has immense potential, but warned it would also be “a source of disruption to the way we live and work - and a multiplier of risk”. He also used his speech and a UN meeting he chaired to address concerns over misinformation and the Israel-Palestine conflict.

He said Russia and other states were using AI-augmented misinformation and disinformation to corrode democracy, adding that Britain had faced this in the decade since it voted to leave the European Union. Burnham said he had asked British security chiefs to set up a National Centre for Information Defence to counter the threat.

On Tuesday, Burnham also chaired a meeting at the UN General Assembly on the Israel-Palestine issue, alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan. He said the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict must be kept alive.

Burnham said failure to deliver a two-state solution would “corrode trust” in politicians who have spoken about the issue without taking action. Addressing delegates from dozens of countries, he said the UK had banned trade with Israeli settlements in the West Bank because the “E1” settlement expansion plan was “a deliberate attempt to block a two-state solution.”

“We all live in an era of low trust in politics. Many people in this room, many politicians around the world, have spoken for decades about a two-state solution. But if we fail to back those words with deeds, we will further corrode trust in the political, diplomatic and international process,” the UK prime minister said, summing up his appeal for action on both AI oversight and the Middle East peace process.