Elon Musk has welcomed China's engagement in talks with the UK and U.S. over regulations aimed at safeguarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) during talks with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Musk was the star guest at the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, where leading companies and nations congregated to discuss initial steps to regulate different AI models and discuss its potential across various sectors.

The summit saw Sunak host Musk at Lancaster House, where the pair discussed China's role in safeguarding AI. Prior to the summit some critics had questioned the UK's decision to invite China, but the technology billionaire says their involvement is essential.

"If the U.S. and the UK and China are aligned on safety, then that's going to be a good thing, because that's where the leadership is generally," he said. "Having them (China) here I think was essential, really. If they're not participants, it's pointless." 

Musk's comments came after Sunak had delivered a speech praising countries from leading nations - particularly China - for coming together to sign the Bletchley Communique, a statement that acknowledges the risks involved in the development of AI.

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Sunak said: "Yesterday, we agreed and published the first ever international statement about the nature of all those risks. It was signed by every single nation represented at this summit covering all continents across the globe, including the U.S. and China. 

"Some said, we shouldn't even invite China, others that we could never get an agreement with them. Both were wrong. A serious strategy for AI safety has to begin with engaging all the world's leading AI powers.  And all of them have signed the Bletchley Park Communique." 

Sunak interviewed billionaire Musk, who bought social media platform Twitter in October 2022 before rebranding it as X earlier this year, about a host of subjects related to AI. One of them involved the potential risk factors and need for mechanisms to evade future disasters.

Sunak compared AI to several sci-fi films in which technology has become a threat to humanity. "All these movies with the same plot fundamentally all end with the person turning it off," he said, adding that the importance of physical off switches had formed part of the discussions at the summit earlier in the day. 

Musk told Sunak he thought AI was "the most disruptive force in history", speculating the technology would be able to "do everything" and make employment as we know it today a thing of the past. 

"I don't know if that makes people comfortable or uncomfortable," he said. "It's both good and bad. One of the challenges in the future will be, how do we find meaning in life if you have a magic genie that can do everything you want?" 

Away from the philosophical challenges that AI may eventually pose, Sunak was keen to make his pitch for investment. Musk outlined the need for start-ups to be rewarded for taking risks in the sector. Sunak responded by saying the UK "very much had a tax system to support that."

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Cover image: /Kirsty Wigglesworth/Pool via Reuters.