Burnham to call for global effort to control threats posed by AI

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Andy Burnham will on Tuesday claim Britain can be an “honest broker” in a global effort to contain threats posed by AI, just days after King Charles warned of the “existential dangers” the technology poses.

The UK prime minister, who will meet US President Donald Trump and other world leaders on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York, said he would also put AI at the centre of Britain’s G20 presidency next year.

In a speech to the UN, Burnham will draw parallels between Britain’s 2009 G20 presidency under Gordon Brown’s premiership, which co-ordinated a global response to the financial crash, and the need for international efforts now to rein in AI.

Speaking to reporters en route to New York, Burnham claimed that Britain — with its significant AI sector — could help to bring together the US and China during its G20 presidency ahead of a summit in Manchester in November 2027.

“We are, I think, uniquely positioned to play a leadership role on AI and it’s very clear to me that the G20 presidency gives us that opportunity,” Burnham said.

King Charles’s intervention on AI at a summit in Scotland last week could help to ease Burnham’s discussions about the technology with Trump, an avowed admirer of the monarch.

The president has called AI safety fears “a hoax” and has rejected calls for more regulation of the technology.

As well as differing views on AI, Burnham’s first face-to-face meeting with Trump comes laced with potential pitfalls given the president’s comments on the need for more North Sea oil and gas drilling, the future of the UK-US air base on Diego Garcia and British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

Burnham will use the meeting to urge Trump to bring the US war with Iran to an early conclusion, insisting that he wants to use his visit to New York to help address “cost of living” issues at home.

The prime minister revealed he had approved the use of a Royal Air Force Voyager refuelling aircraft to help Saudi Arabia in its conflict with Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are disrupting the flow of oil in the region.

The prime minister will try to break the ice with Trump by focusing on UK-US defence co-operation, including the successful launch by the two countries of a heavyweight torpedo from an undersea drone made in Plymouth.

He wants Trump to do more to help Ukraine defend itself from Russian aerial attacks and will also acknowledge the importance of AI in improving national security, including protecting critical national infrastructure.

Burnham will confirm at the UN that Britain will host a G20 leaders’ summit next year in Manchester — until recently his regional power base as mayor of the city. He joked that he would chide Trump for referring to Manchester as a “town”.

During his brief visit to New York, Burnham will also meet European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen as he tries to broker a breakthrough on a reset of UK-EU relations ahead of a summit planned later this year.

Number 10 said Burnham would “champion close ties between UK and EU industry”, a reference to his efforts to ensure that Britain is not excluded from a new Brussels-led “Made in Europe” industrial policy.

The prime minister will also meet investors, vowing that his government would make the UK a place where it is “easier to invest, easier to raise capital, easier to hire the talented people businesses need and easier to grow”.

Sir Keir Starmer was sometimes criticised for spending too much time on foreign trips while prime minister and was dubbed by his critics “never here Keir”.

But Burnham will argue that his engagement on the international stage is important. “The British people at home are at the forefront of the prime minister’s mission in New York,” Number 10 said, adding there was a “darkening global picture”.