Bletchley Declaration on AI Safety is a Voluntary code from global, adopted on 2023-11-02 and effective 2023-11-02. Current status: In force. First multilateral consensus on frontier-AI safety risks. 28 signatories including US, EU, China. Introduced the policy vocabulary of 'frontier AI' that later instruments adopted. Non-binding but precedent-setting; spawned the AI Safety Institute network.
Scope and obligations
First multilateral consensus on frontier-AI safety risks. 28 signatories including US, EU, China. Introduced the policy vocabulary of 'frontier AI' that later instruments adopted. Non-binding but precedent-setting; spawned the AI Safety Institute network.
Bletchley Declaration on AI Safety addresses 3 contested AI-governance topics explicitly, 2 via general principles,.
Topics governed
- governsFoundation Models / GPAI— Declaration §1-2 (frontier AI defined as the subject)
- implicitCompute-Threshold Reporting— Declaration §6 calls for capability evaluation but does not specify compute thresholds
- implicitTransparency Obligations— Declaration §6 endorses transparency to evaluators; no operative requirements
- governsCatastrophic & Existential Risk— Declaration §3-5 (substantial risks from frontier AI, including catastrophic harm)
- governsInternational Coordination— Declaration §8-10 (international coordination is the operative ask)
Cross-jurisdiction comparison
How peer instruments treat the topics Bletchley Declaration on AI Safety governs.
| Topic | EU-AIA-2024 | US-EO-14110 | US-EO-14179 | UK-WHITEPAPER-2023 | CN-GENAI-2023 | G7-HIROSHIMA | OECD-AI-PRIN | COE-AI-CONV | UN-RES-2024 | NIST-AI-RMF | SEOUL-2024 | NIST-AI-RMF-GENAI | CA-SB-1047 | IN-DPDP-2023 | BR-AIBILL-2024 | ASEAN-AI-GUIDE-2024 | AU-AI-STRATEGY-2024 | ANTHROPIC-RSP-2024 | OPENAI-PREPAREDNESS-2023 | DEEPMIND-FSF-2024 | META-FRONTIER-2024 | UK-US-AISI-MOU-2024 | WH-VOLUNTARY-2023 | SG-MODEL-AI-2024 | JP-METI-AI-2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foundation Models / GPAI | governs | governs | silent | implicit | governs | governs | implicit | implicit | silent | governs | governs | governs | governs | implicit | governs | implicit | silent | governs | governs | governs | governs | governs | governs | governs | governs |
| Catastrophic & Existential Risk | implicit | governs | silent | implicit | silent | governs | silent | silent | implicit | implicit | governs | governs | governs | silent | governs | silent | silent | governs | governs | governs | governs | implicit | implicit | silent | silent |
| International Coordination | silent | silent | silent | silent | silent | silent | silent | silent | silent | silent | governs | silent | silent | silent | silent | governs | governs | implicit | implicit | implicit | implicit | governs | implicit | governs | governs |
How to cite this article
APA 7
Policy Window. (2023). Bletchley Declaration on AI Safety [Wiki article]. https://policywindow.org/wiki/bletchley-declaration
Chicago 17
Policy Window. 2023. "Bletchley Declaration on AI Safety." Wiki article. https://policywindow.org/wiki/bletchley-declaration.
BibTeX
@misc{policywindow-bletchley-declaration,
title = {Bletchley Declaration on AI Safety},
author = {Policy Window},
year = {2023},
howpublished = {Bletchley Declaration (UK AI Safety Summit, Nov 2023)},
url = {https://policywindow.org/wiki/bletchley-declaration},
note = {Primary source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ai-safety-summit-2023-the-bletchley-declaration}
}Related instruments
- Executive Order 14110 on Safe, Secure, Trustworthy AI · US
- G7 Hiroshima AI Process Code of Conduct · G7
- Seoul Declaration on Safe, Innovative and Inclusive AI · global
- NIST AI RMF Generative AI Profile · US
- California SB-1047: Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier AI Models Act · US
- Brazil AI Bill (PL 2338/2023) · BR
- Anthropic Responsible Scaling Policy (RSP) v2 · US
- OpenAI Preparedness Framework · US
- Google DeepMind Frontier Safety Framework · US
- Meta Frontier AI Framework · US
- UK-US AI Safety Institute Memorandum of Understanding · global
- Singapore Model AI Governance Framework for Generative AI · SG
- Japan METI AI Guidelines for Business · JP
References
- Bletchley Declaration (UK AI Safety Summit, Nov 2023)
- Declaration §1-2 (frontier AI defined as the subject)
- Declaration §6 calls for capability evaluation but does not specify compute thresholds
- Declaration §6 endorses transparency to evaluators; no operative requirements
- Declaration §3-5 (substantial risks from frontier AI, including catastrophic harm)
- Declaration §8-10 (international coordination is the operative ask)
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