US vice-president to say short-term problems with technology as pressing as existential ones, before UK summit UK politics live – latest updates Short-term threats posed by artificial intelligence to democracy and privacy need to be addressed as urgently as longer term existential threats, Kamala Harris, the US vice-president, is expected to say in a speech setting out the Biden administration’s vision before the UK’s Bletchley Park summit on AI. In a speech in London on Wednesday before attending the conference, she will say: “We reject the false choice that suggests we can either protect t ..read more

Science secretary defends government’s decision to not rejoin nuclear research programme as UK rejoins science research programme Horizon In the Commons Alex Chalk, the justice secretary, is making a statement to MPs about the escape of Daniel Abed Khalife from Wandsorth prison. Mabel Banfield-Nwachi is covering this on our separate live blog about this story. Rishi Sunak has been speaking to journalists about the government’s decision to rejoin the EU’s Horizon science research programme on a visit to the University of Warwick. Here are the main points he made. Sunak defended the length of ti ..read more

Polls suggest a majority of Britons regret our exit. Rejoining the scientific programme could be the start of something bigger Is this the dawn? Have we reached the glimmer of a new beginning? Rishi Sunak’s about-turn on joining the European Union’s Horizon programme is a first note of sanity in the two and a half tortured years since Britain formally left the EU. Let it not be the last. The story itself is miserable. Horizon is an £81bn continent-wide programme to give Europe’s scientific research community a critical mass to compare with that of the US or China. It acknowledges the obvious t ..read more

Scientists welcome long-anticipated deal to return to £85bn science research programme The UK is to return to the flagship Horizon Europe science research programme, Rishi Sunak has confirmed. The prime minister said that from Thursday, British scientists can apply once again for grants from the £85bn programme, a move that will be welcomed with jubilation from the science community in the UK which was once one of the leading beneficiaries of the fund ..read more

Post-Brexit return to £85bn scheme discussed this week, say sources, and is set to be announced on Thursday Britain is to rejoin the EU’s flagship £85bn science research programme, Horizon Europe, in a long-anticipated deal welcomed by scientists. Britain’s membership of Horizon, which funds research projects tackling crucial issues from the climate crisis to terminal diseases and improving food and energy security, was agreed as part of the post-Brexit trade deal in 2020. But it was never ratified in a tit-for-tat row between the EU and the UK over Northern Ireland Brexit arrangements ..read more

In sniping at ‘failures’ on Covid, the former MI6 chief is reinforcing a false message The former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove is no stranger to the intricacies of intelligence. But it was his comments about intelligence of the artificial kind, and about science, on the One Decision Podcast, which he co-hosts, that generated a flurry of interest last week. Reacting to grave warnings from some scientists over potential dangers of AI, Dearlove professed scepticism, reasoning that such dire predictions cannot be taken overly seriously given the failures of scientists on Covid. Such comments bet ..read more

A new Cambridge University institute will try to harness the good and anticipate the bad effects of artificial intelligence Stephen Cave has considerable experience of well-intentioned actions that have unhappy consequences. A former senior diplomat in the foreign office during the New Labour era, he was involved in treaty negotiations which later – and unexpectedly – unravelled to trigger several international events that included Brexit. “I know the impact of well-meant global events that have gone wrong,” he admits. His experience could prove valuable, however. The former diplomat, now a se ..read more

Rishi Sunak is still dithering about whether to rejoin the EU’s £85bn scheme or force our scientists to go it alone with UK funding On Tuesday, Rishi Sunak is scheduled to hold talks with the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, at a Nato summit in Vilnius. The meeting will be scrutinised with uncharacteristic care by British scientists. They are praying, fervently, that the prime minister will use the occasion – as has been hinted – to announce his approval of a renegotiated agreement that will allow Britain to rejoin the Horizon Europe research programme. Such a deal, researc ..read more

Biological facilities in the US and around the world suffer breaches, including of potentially pandemic-causing pathogens, but are shrouded in secrecy At biological research facilities across the United States and around the world, hundreds of safety breaches happen every year at labs experimenting with dangerous pathogens. Scientists and other lab workers are bitten by infected animals, stuck by contaminated needles and splashed with infectious fluids. They are put at risk of exposures when their protective gear malfunctions or critical building biosafety systems fail. And, like all humans, t ..read more

Amid stalemate over UK joining Horizon Europe due to Northern Ireland protocol, Michelle Donelan looks to allies outside bloc The government’s new science minister has said the UK is “more than ready to go it alone” if there is no resolution to the stalemate over taking part in the EU’s flagship research programme. Brussels has so far blocked Britain’s requests to join the €100bn (£88.6bn) Horizon Europe programme because of a dispute over the Northern Ireland protocol, leading UK ministers to draw up contingency plans for collaborations outside the bloc ..read more