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The UK's Minister for the Future Digital Economy and Online Safety, Baroness Jones, yesterday delivered the keynote speech at the WTO's AI Conference in Geneva.

Thank you, Director General, and thank you for inviting me to speak today.

The UK government is placing technology at the foundation of our economic growth strategy, using it to drive innovation, create high-quality job opportunities and enhance earning potential.

Our universities, which include 4 of the world’s top 10 ranked institutions, are powerhouses of tech research and development. They are helping to cultivate the next generation of UK entrepreneurs, turning cutting-edge advancements into thriving businesses. This academic excellence strengthens our economy and places the UK at the forefront of global innovation.

Our government is also digitally transforming its public services, making them faster, more efficient, and easier to access. By reducing bureaucracy and streamlining processes, we’re giving citizens valuable time back, and empowering them to focus on what truly matters.

By embracing tech and digital transformation, we are equipping our workforce with future-ready skills and positioning the UK as a global leader in the digital age, ensuring prosperity and competitiveness in the ever-evolving world economy.

The UK government is dedicated to collaborating internationally to realize our digital and tech ambitions. By sharing expertise and driving innovation, together we can shape global standards, boost our economies, and create opportunities for all.

And AI is the technology that, more than any other, will shape all our lives in the coming decades.

Its impact in accelerating global trade has the potential to change the course of the century ahead.

The World Economic Forum has recently forecast that generative AI could add $4.4 trillion annually to our global economy.

And, as your report revealed, by 2040 global trade growth could rise by almost 14 percentage points, and real global GDP by 11 percent, if we adopt AI universally.

It is clear that trade will be shaped by the use of AI, and it has enormous potential to enhance trade flows.

Equally, AI will be shaped by trade, it is a tradeable tool. Therefore, the WTO will have a say on how AI goods and services are traded.

However, AI will not only change trade. As the adoption of the Global Digital Compact at the UN this September also shows, technology, including AI, can revolutionise the delivery of sustainable development goals.

Those working at the forefront have already recognised the game-changing potential of this technology.

Some businesses are already seizing the opportunity to use AI to speed up processes, cut waste, and maximise their production.

For the rest of society, though, such rapid progress can create uncertainty and fear. They will need our help to understand what the AI era means for them – and how they can benefit.

The truth is, we are standing at a threshold. The scale of the opportunity here is phenomenal. To seize it, though, we will need to be proactive and collaborative.   

We will succeed only if we combine ambitious domestic and international action to unlock the benefits of AI for our health, happiness and of course prosperity.

Those actions must be underpinned, as ever, by open and free trade.

That’s why it’s so important for me to be speaking with you today.

But first, what has the UK been doing to develop our domestic AI ecosystem? We recognise that the new global economy is increasingly digital, with digital trade now encompassing 25% of global trade, around £4 trillion, and growing. 

AI will be integral to the growth, so we know we must redouble our efforts to develop our domestic AI ecosystem.

In our first month in Government, we kick-started the AI Opportunities Action Plan, led by entrepreneur Matt Clifford.

Soon to be published, this Plan sets out the concrete steps we will take to grow our AI sector, accelerate adoption across the economy, and modernise our public services.

At its foundation is a belief that every person in Britain should be able to feel the benefits of AI - from academia and businesses to public services and citizens. We cannot afford to leave anyone behind.

No part of the plan will be possible if we act alone. That is why we are working in partnership with industry, civil society, and international partners to deliver it.

As we do so, we will learn much more about how to foster growth at every stage of the process, from development to adoption. I hope I will be back in Geneva soon to share some of our early insights.

And as you may have heard, our approach has safety at its foundation.  We know that, unless people and businesses can trust the technology, they will not use it. Safety and growth, therefore, go hand in hand.

I am proud that the UK is leading the global conversation about AI safety.

That conversation started when global leaders gathered for the world’s first AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in the UK last year.

Since then, our AI Safety Institute has built on this success through its mature and productive relationships with frontier AI companies and stakeholders from around the world.

At the same time, we are engaging with our expert regulators to better manage responsible AI use, to bolster innovation and growth within their sectors.

Soon, we will bring forward highly targeted binding regulation on the handful of companies developing the most powerful AI systems, to ensure the UK is prepared for this fast-moving technology.

These proposals will reduce regulatory uncertainty for AI developers, strengthen public trust, and boost business confidence.

As we develop them, we will work closely with international partners to assess interoperability and ensure these measures are effective.

In doing so, we will strengthen opportunities for trade and growth. 

Much of that growth will come not from the ‘AI Sector’ itself but from businesses across the economy, who are responsibly adopting this technology to boost their productivity and growth.

We must support them.

Earlier this month, the UK’s Secretary of State for Science Innovation and Technology Peter Kyle, launched the ‘Assuring a Responsible Future for AI’ Report. This sets out how we will grow our AI assurance market.  This market is predicted to grow sixfold to £6.5 billion by the end of the decade.

At the same time, we have launched a public consultation on AI Management Essentials – a self-management tool designed to support start-ups and SMEs to use AI responsibly.

In March next year, the UK’s AI Standards Hub will hold a global summit on how AI technical standards can contribute to AI safety and global interoperability.

With sensible, proportionate policies like this, we can ensure that every business – large and small – can benefit from the opportunities that AI offers.

But, while we have made great strides domestically, we recognise that we cannot do this alone.

That is why we are engaging every day with partners around the globe, and in international institutions, including here in Geneva I am delighted the WTO is now clearly a part of this conversation too.

Only together, can we shape the rules-based international order - for this new AI era.

One specific example is working with the OECD to develop the Terminology Tool for Responsible AI.

This tool will define key terms and concepts in AI governance frameworks and map the relationships between them.

In turn, it will help industry and assurance providers navigate different governance frameworks, boosting interoperability.

And it will play a vital role in unlocking the full economic and social potential of this technology.

And this is where trade comes in because as the WTO report sets out, much of that potential lies in AI’s transformative impact on trade.

AI promises to bolster digitisation at every level of the economy, hailing a new era for business efficiency, and allowing SMEs greater access than ever before to international markets through digitisation

With the expansion of digitally delivered services, it has the potential to open opportunities t to SMEs anywhere in the world regardless of their location to international markets.

That is only possible with policymaking which recognises that regulation must be interoperable and coherent.

Policy-making that recognises that unnecessarily burdensome rules are a barrier to growth.

And that the right kind of regulation can stimulate responsible innovation for the benefit everyone.

We remain committed to collaborating with like-minded partners around the world, to address some of the most challenging issues we face in this space.

That could mean working out the right way to govern the data that AI depends upon. Or finding a fair solution for text and data mining, which supports technological innovation, and protects fair pay and rights for the creatives who generate that training data. 

We also want to work together to close the digital divide, through the excellent work of the ITU and other international organisations.  

AI must reduce global inequalities, rather than exacerbate them.

That’s why the UK has committed £58 million to the AI for Development programme, working with international and local partners to support AI capacity building across Africa and Asia, to foster innovation and boost economic growth.

We also believe that, as the ITU’s AI for good Global Summit has so clearly demonstrated, AI can play a vital role in tackling some of our greatest global challenges – from food insecurity to climate change.

That is why the UK has been funding AI innovations aimed at tackling acute development challenges for the past decade.

Those innovations have already had tangible impact across a range of Sustainable Development Goals. For example, using AI to improve chlorination instructions has made water safe to drink for at least 465,000 refugees in Bangladesh, South Sudan, Syria and beyond.

AI knows no borders, and all countries should be able to participate in discussions on issues which affect them.

Through our sponsorship of the OECD-African Union AI Dialogue series, we can provide a valuable avenue to deepen multilateral cooperation on AI governance with a broader range of countries.

And, through multi-stakeholder initiatives like the UK’s AI Standards Hub and the Portfolio of AI Assurance Techniques, we are supporting the development of the global technical standards and assurance mechanisms we need to overcome technical barriers to trade in AI and improve international market access.

Global collaboration is never easy. Not least on a technology so rapidly changing as AI.

But if there is anywhere where those efforts will succeed, it is here in Geneva.

Today’s Conference and the WTO’s Report is therefore an excellent start to a conversation that we need to have on AI and trade – domestically, regionally and internationally.

And the World Trade Organisation is well placed to drive forward progress and the UK stands ready to take part in this conversation.

We look forward to hearing from others today on their views on the role of the WTO in that conversation and how we can best collaborate on this important agenda.

Our because our task is an urgent one.

There is no doubt that AI will change our societies and our economies.

Our choice is not whether that change happens.

It is whether we sit back and allow it to shape us.

It is whether we actively shape the future of this technology and the world it will enable.

We want that world to be one where every country has access to the opportunities that AI presents – and every citizen is protected from the potential risks.

By working together, we can make that ambition a reality.