{
  "id": 8914206,
  "title": "Tony Blair warns leaders to resist growing AI ‘techlash’",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/21/tony-blair-warns-leaders-to-resist-growing-ai-techlash",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-09-21T11:44:56.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "City AM",
    "slug": "city-am",
    "url": "https://www.cityam.com/tony-blair-warns-leaders-to-resist-growing-ai-techlash/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has cautioned against succumbing to the rising \"techlash\" surrounding artificial intelligence (AI). In a recent report by the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), Blair argues that slowing AI adoption could result in poorer countries and reduced security due to mounting concerns over the technology. The report suggests that political leaders in the US and UK are experiencing growing pressure to curb AI development, but warns that doing so may carry significant long-term costs for economic growth and national security.\n\nThe TBI's report highlights that concerns over AI's potential risks have intensified recently, with former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon raising alarms about developers \"gambling with our lives\" and Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei and OpenAI's Sam Altman advocating for a \"pace\" in development. Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang dismissed predictions of human extinction by the end of the decade as \"not grounded in science\" and called for developers to move as fast as possible while maintaining safety.\n\nBlair argues that governments should neither grant AI companies a free pass nor respond to public anxiety by halting development. Instead, he calls for a comprehensive system of independent testing and assurance, along with a significant overhaul of government to maximize the use of AI. Blair emphasizes that leaders must address AI as the defining technological reality of our age and not ask whether it is a good or bad thing. He warns that countries that fail to embrace major technological shifts in the past have faced \"profound and compounding disadvantage.\"\n\nThe TBI proposes focusing on building an \"AI assurance\" industry to independently test, evaluate, and certify AI systems before and after deployment rather than implementing strict regulations. Elizabeth Seger, the TBI's AI governance and ethics adviser, suggests that the answer lies in finding a balance between caution and progress, known as \"grip.\" The think tank found that 38% of UK adults view a lack of trust as the most significant barrier to using AI, while 61% of organizations have delayed or reduced AI investments due to reliability concerns. The TBI recommends making AI assurance a national priority, clarifying liability for system failures, and leveraging procurement and regulation to encourage demand for independent testing.\n\nAdditionally, the report emphasizes that AI should be integrated into government operations, enabling Whitehall to collect data across departments, model the consequences of policy decisions, and ensure that AI systems are bounded, auditable, and revocable while still allowing human decision-making.",
  "summary": "Tony Blair has warned governments against bowing to a growing “techlash” over AI, arguing that slowing adoption could leave countries poorer and less secure as concerns over the technology mount. A report from the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), published on Monday, said political leaders in the US and UK were facing growing pressure to hold [...]",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The National UAE",
        "title": "AI must be at heart of intelligence operations, says Tony Blair",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/20/ai-must-be-at-heart-of-intelligence-operations-says-tony-blair",
        "published": "2026-09-20T23:01:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}