Global cooperation needed to tackle AI threats, says Bank of England governor | AI (artificial intelligence)

The governor of the Bank of England has called for international cooperation to combat growing artificial intelligence threats, warning that the US and the Trump administration cannot achieve their goals alone.

Andrew Bailey’s comments come weeks after US president Donald Trump temporarily banned foreigners from using Anthropic’s powerful Claude Mythos model.

Speaking to the Guardian before addressing financial bosses at the annual Mansion House dinner in London, Bailey said governments around the world must join forces to ensure bad actors do not hijack powerful and potentially destabilizing digital tools.

“We need to have better international understanding of how to deal with the introduction of AI at the border,” Bailey said, arguing that this will require stronger coordinated testing to ensure it is safe for AI models to be put into wider circulation.

The Trump administration has already disappointed allies seeking a common approach by temporarily banning American artificial intelligence company Anthropic from allowing foreigners to use some of its most powerful models, including Claude Mythos, which experts warn poses potential threats to cyber defenses.

Although the ban was lifted a few weeks later, Bailey said the United States should remember that without global cooperation it may not be able to secure itself against growing cyber threats or create robust recovery plans.

“The United States alone cannot achieve what it reasonably wants to achieve in terms of strengthening defense because it is such an interconnected system,” he said.

He elaborated on this point in a speech to City bosses on Tuesday, saying: “No country can insulate itself from the cross-border nature of the systems prevalent today.”

Bailey’s call for action on artificial intelligence came alongside a challenging speech at Mansion House by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who is preparing to leave the Treasury. In what was likely one of his final on-set performances, Reeves defended his record and warned his successor not to squander the “platform of stability” he had created.

“The records of the last two years make clear that governments can achieve this.” [radical] “They change only when they combine radicalism with credibility,” he said.

“I needed to gain that credibility in the opposition, and I have proven that in government with every action I have taken since I became chancellor. If this work is to continue, that hard-earned credibility needs to be maintained and the foundations protected.”

Andy Burnham is expected to be confirmed as Labor leader on Friday and take over as prime minister next week. He is expected to appoint a new chancellor.

Reeves cited a number of statistics that he said prove he made the right choices during his two years in office.

“Last year, borrowing fell from 5.2 per cent of GDP to 4.2 per cent – the lowest level in six years. Investment is rising, productivity is rising and wages are rising. Waiting lists are falling faster than at any time in the last 17 years and half a million children will be lifted out of poverty during the course of this parliament,” he said.

“If I had said two years ago that we would be here today, people would have doubted it, but we proved the doubters wrong.”

As the conflict in the Middle East flares up again following the collapse of the US-Iran memorandum, Reeves also warned that the UK economy will continue to be hit by shocks.

“The resumption of hostilities in the Middle East over the past few days has shown that our economic resilience will continue to be tested, and the market response to these changes shows that there is still work to be done to insure our economy and our country against a volatile global landscape,” he said.

The interest rate, or yield, on 10-year UK government debt rose above 5% on Tuesday, reaching its highest level since May, before falling slightly below after Trump withdrew his threat to impose a 20% tax on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

A new chancellor will need to give the independent Office for Budget Responsibility 10 weeks’ notice to prepare a new forecast ahead of the planned autumn budget.

If it goes ahead, higher yields will trickle down to the government’s borrowing costs, eating into the £23.6bn “headroom” Reeves set aside against his fiscal rules in the last forecast in March.

Whoever is in charge at the Treasury will need to find an additional £4.7bn over the next four years to fund the defense investment plan.

Burnham is believed to be keen to announce a cost-of-living package for households predicted to be hit by high energy bills this winter due to the impact of the war.

Bailey’s comments on international cooperation came as Demis Hassabis, the British Nobel laureate and entrepreneur behind Google Deepmind, called for a US-led global AI watchdog to help test advanced models and put the brakes on their development if they pose too much risk.

The paper, published in X on Tuesday, suggested that an AI model with the same cognitive abilities as the human brain is “likely only a few short years away.”