Governments should use AI to create intelligence systems to identify threats, test policy decisions and help political leaders make decisions, the Tony Blair Institute has said in a report.
It warned that governments risk falling behind if they focus solely on the dangers posed by AI, while failing to exploit its potential to transform the way states operate.
“The opportunities are immense,” Mr Blair wrote. “For developing countries, AI can dramatically expand access to scarce expertise, allowing them to accelerate development in ways that were previously impossible.”
In developed countries AI can “help break the cycle of rising taxes and spending that too often fails to improve public-services”, he added.
But public anxiety over the technology is rising sharply, with a YouGov poll finding that one in three people in the UK regard AI as one of the three most likely causes of human extinction – more than double the 15 per cent who held that view a year earlier. AI remains behind nuclear war, at 58 per cent, and climate change, at 43 per cent.
Questions over rapidly advancing AI have intensified, with the UK's King Charles III warning on Thursday of the “existential dangers” of the technology falling into the wrong hands. He asked whether there were sufficient means to control it “before it is all too late”.
Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei has also called for the development of frontier AI to be slowed down, with OpenAI chief Sam Altman and tech billionaire Elon Musk among those backing the need for greater caution.
AI state
Against that backdrop, the institute's report, Leading in the Age of AI: How to Build an AI-Enabled State, argues that governments must fundamentally rethink how they make decisions and deliver policies.
It recommends the creation of AI-enabled strategic intelligence and simulation capabilities at the centre of government. Authorities should “automate intelligence to elevate judgment”, using machines to give politicians a clearer picture of their options, while leaving decisions and democratic responsibility in human hands.
The report said AI should be used to strengthen political judgment rather than replace it.
It comes as fears grow over the threats posed by increasingly powerful AI, from potential mass unemployment to AI-enabled biological attacks.
Mr Blair said those dangers must be addressed, but warned that governments also risk failing to adapt to the technology quickly enough.
“Countries suffer profound and compounding disadvantage if they fail to absorb major technological revolutions,” the former British prime minister said. “New capabilities are emerging at an extraordinary pace, with profound implications for economies, education, science, labour markets, public services and national security."
But institutions that are supposed to help political leaders respond to such changes are “simply not equipped for what is coming", he added.
Testing policy
The report said AI would enable governments to test the probable consequences of policy decisions before committing to them. Instead of introducing individual AI tools or running small-scale experiments, the technology should be built into the machinery of government, the report said.
It called for secure shared data systems allowing information to move more easily between departments, as well as a form of institutional memory capable of preserving decisions and “lessons learnt”.
Keegan McBride, the institute’s director of science and technology and author of the report, said political leaders “cannot sit out the age of AI”.
“AI will transform how economies function, how science and research are conducted and how countries think about defence and security," he added.
Leaders would have to make “hard choices” that could fundamentally affect the futures of their countries and needed institutions capable of helping them implement those decisions. “The best institutions are those that put digital technology and AI at the heart of everything that they do,” he said.
National capability
But the report drew a clear line between using AI to inform government and allowing machines to determine political priorities. AI can help leaders understand their options and the consequences of different choices, it said, but it cannot decide which risks to accept.
The countries that prosper in the AI era will not simply be the ones with the most advanced technology, but those capable of turning it into greater national capability, the report added.
However, the YouGov research found that more than half of Britons believe AI’s overall impact will be negative, and three quarters believe that AI companies face too little regulation. It found that 78 per cent have no confidence in the companies to develop the technology responsibly.
Four out of five also lack confidence in the ability of governments to regulate the sector effectively, and 61 per cent support slowing the pace of AI development.
