British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has joined the ranks of global leaders calling for the management of risks surrounding artificial intelligence, which has sparked safety controversies, while offering for the UK to play a mediating role.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York on the 22nd local time, Prime Minister Burnham stated, "Frontier AI is one of the most serious challenges and opportunities of our time," adding, "The fundamental decisions regarding this technology are too important to be left to chance and must be made by democratically elected governments."

"We will strive to forge agreement on a single set of global principles and standards to ensure transparency, accessibility, and the safe development of AI," Burnham emphasized, stating that the UK, as a close ally of the United States and maintaining deep friendly ties with the European Union, will act as an "honest broker."

Major British media outlets pointed out that this signifies the UK's intent to lead efforts in establishing global standards for AI safety, which contrasts with the stance of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has firmly rejected any attempts to control AI.

Amid growing concerns that AI is developing rapidly enough to threaten society and intensifying debates over AI hegemony, leaders at this UN General Assembly are competing by proposing their own solutions.

French President Emmanuel Macron also took aim at the U.S. and China during his UN General Assembly speech on the same day, declaring, "We do not wish to become vassals of major powers," and urging nations to cooperate in developing open-source AI.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Burnham dedicated a significant portion of his speech to the issue of cyber security threats originating from Russia, announcing the establishment of a "National Cyber Security Center" to counter hostile state intelligence attacks.

"Russian agencies use every means at their disposal to spread falsehoods and disinformation," Burnham said, adding, "The Kremlin spends 1.3 billion pounds (approx. 2.4 trillion won) annually on information manipulation."

"We also have evidence that they interfered in the 2019 general election," he noted, pointing out that "they created bots and fake websites, manipulated newspaper articles, and impersonated 28 British organizations, including universities and the BBC."

"We have approached this issue with excessive caution for too long," Burnham emphasized. "No longer.

The next decade will see us confront this differently."

(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)