Ed Davey to call for global nuclear-style AI non-proliferation treaty at Lib Dem conference

Davey says PM’s US AI partnership risks UK dependence on Trump

Ed Davey will use his keynote speech at the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton on Tuesday to call for a global nuclear-style non-proliferation treaty to halt the development of super-intelligent AI and to propose a new international AI safety agency headquartered in the UK and modeled on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The Lib Dem leader’s intervention comes a day after the prime minister announced a new UK-US AI partnership ahead of US President Donald Trump’s address to the UN general assembly. Davey will say that plan “doesn’t come close to meeting the scale of this threat” and “only risks making us more dependent on a Trump administration in the pocket of the tech bros.”

In his speech on Tuesday, Davey will frame AI as an existential risk comparable to nuclear weapons, telling delegates that the future of AI is being decided by “a tiny number of the richest and most powerful in California and in Beijing” with no guardrails to slow down development. “We didn’t leave the atom bomb to a few billionaires to police themselves,” he will say.

Davey will single out three tech executives by name, saying: “We can’t leave it to Mark Zuckerberg, to Sam Altman, or to Elon Musk to save us.” He will call for a global pause on super-intelligent AI and for a new international movement to work together to address what he will describe as a technology that could “destroy us all.”

The Lib Dem leader will accuse Prime Minister Andy Burnham of relying on Donald Trump and “tech bros” to solve the problem. Davey told Sky News the “jury is out” on whether Burnham would deliver as prime minister, though he praised Burnham for wanting to reform adult social care. “I think it’s good when other parties start talking about Liberal Democrat priorities,” he said. “We have led the debate on social care and carers because it’s so important for our health service.” On political reform, Davey added: “We’ve led the debate on political change because we need to change our political system, and Mr Burnham seems to be up for that.”

The AI proposals are part of a wider package of policy announcements Davey is making at the Brighton gathering. On Sunday he set out a proposal to cut fuel duty by 10p a litre for a fixed three-month period, reduce the bus fare cap from £3 to £1, and pursue other transport-related cost-of-living measures. Davey told the BBC he would propose further tax cuts, financed by higher economic growth that he said would follow the Lib Dems’ proposal to seek entry to the EU single market. Asked if more tax cuts were coming, he replied: “Absolutely.”

Defending himself in Monday interviews against complaints his party lacks vision, Davey told the BBC: “It’s a very noisy environment at the moment. But let me tell you, some of the noise generated by the populists are things that divide our country, that are nasty, or that are just completely crazy. I don’t want to do that. I want to tell people that we have really well thought through policies that will cut their taxes.”

On Monday, the party’s home affairs spokesperson Max Wilkinson announced a proposed “big tech levy” and pledged to create a new online crime agency focused on offences including child sexual abuse material, drug and weapons trafficking, and deepfake AI-generated pornographic images. Wilkinson said the Lib Dems would properly regulate use of Meta’s smart glasses, which he called “perv goggles,” telling the conference the glasses “are more than a benign piece of tech that provides a bit of fun” and that people, especially women, were being recorded without consent or warning. “This is becoming the new norm, because this government won’t stand up to big tech to protect our civil liberties,” he said.

Davey’s speech comes amid warnings from AI researchers that artificial intelligence could pose catastrophic risks to humanity within the decade. He will compare AI development to a nuclear arms race and will argue that the IAEA, built by nations “working together to control a technology that could destroy us all,” offers a template for international coordination on AI.