UK Parliament Petition Calling for an Urgent Citizens’ Assembly on AI

I started a petition on the UK Parliament website, calling for an urgent citizens’ assembly on AI, to give society a say on this civilisation-altering technology. Below is a summary of the petition, followed by an explanation of why I created it.

UK Parliament Petition – Hold an urgent Citizens’ Assembly on AI and enact its recommendations

I believe AI is being rapidly developed and released, without regulations to protect us from risks. Given the potentially profound implications, I think society must urgently be consulted through a national Citizens’ Assembly. The government must enact all recommendations, including on regulations.

The government has said it wants to “unleash” AI, and mainline it into the country’s veins. But, Geoffrey Hinton, the Nobel Prize winner often called the ‘Godfather of AI,’ has warned there’s a 10% to 20% chance of AI leading to our extinction within 30 years.

I think the dangers of AI are enormous, with a possible loss of millions of jobs, that could upend society. I think citizens should decide how the technology is developed, by whom, for what purposes, the safety standards, and how to regulate AI and the tech industry.

This petition can be signed here.

Context

It goes without saying that we’re living through turbulent times. Wars and conflict dominate the news cycle, whilst the climate crisis accelerates and the threat of algorithmic extinction continues to grow. Humanity has put itself in the crosshairs of its own destruction.

2025 marks 37 years since Dr James Hansen first warned the world about the climate crisis. For nearly four decades, politicians have bent the knee to the fossil fuel corporations pushing us towards a cliff edge. Not to be outdone, the tech corporations are pushing unsafe and unregulated AI into the public domain with little thought or care for the consequences. It’s difficult to overstate how dire our predicament is and how close to the abyss we truly are.

I recently wrote about Dr James Hansen’s warning that if we carry on along our current emissions path, it’s likely that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) will shut down in 20 to 30 years. This would have a dramatic impact, including sea level rise of many meters and the inundation of many of the world’s coastal cities. This would be compounded by mass migration away from coastlines and raging extreme weather events. That 30 year timeframe also holds a macabre place in the world of AI. The Nobel-winning ‘Godfather of AI’ Geoffrey Hinton, has warned there is a 10-20% of AI leading to human extinction within the next 30 years. Dr Hansen and Geoffrey Hinton, are two of the leading experts in their respective fields. Both are warning that our current trajectory will lead to our collective downfall in the near future.

Thus, it seems clear that civilisation has reached a defining moment in our troubled history. Either we act to avert climate breakdown and algorithmic extinction, or we become the generation which fails to live up to the responsibility that has been thrust upon our shoulders. To protect the future will involve concerted and ongoing effort and commitment from every corner of society.

I’ve personally spent 16 years in the climate arena. I graduated with one of the first Bachelor of Science degrees in the subject, from one of the only universities to offer the programme at the time. I’ve watched politicians fail to address this civilisation-threatening issue at annual climate summits stretching from COP15 to COP29. I now see the same process in action as the AI crisis unfolds, with politicians dragging their feet as lobbying increases (tech companies spent $957m on lobbying in 2023 alone). It’s crystal clear to me that humanity will struggle to overcome one of these issues. But the fact that both the climate emergency and the AI crisis are taking place simultaneously, makes me feel despondent about our chances. Not for want of solutions – we have plenty of those. But for the complete and utter lack of political will across the world. That’s where the hold-up is. That’s where our downfall is being cemented.

That being said, there is one avenue that gives me hope – deliberative, participatory democracy is making a comeback. Citizens’ assemblies are a great example of this. In these assemblies, ordinary citizens are chosen through a randomised process called sortition. The group of people chosen are representative of the socio-economic make-up of the population as a whole. These individuals are given presentations and talks by leading experts on a given subject. They have the opportunity to question the experts in-depth. They also debate and discuss ideas and solutions in smaller groups with a moderator/facilitator. At the end of the assembly, a report is produced with their recommendations.

These assemblies have proven highly effective in addressing a range of complex and controversial issues. It’s my firm belief that citizens’ assemblies offer a route out of our predicament on both the climate and AI crises. Not only that, but there’s the possibility for them to reshape our democratic institutions on a more permanent basis, giving society a say on the issues that will directly affect our collective futures. For now though, let’s concentrate on the gargantuan issues in front of us.

In 2020 a national citizens’ assembly on climate change took place in the UK. This was very well organised and featured in a BBC documentary. The main sticking point? The government chose not to implement the findings of the assembly. This is the key issue. It’s all well and good running citizens’ assemblies, but if no one implements the findings, they’re as good as pointless.

Given that assemblies have already been run on the climate crisis, I’ve chosen to focus on calling for a national citizens’ assembly on AI. However, there’s a crucial difference with my petition. It specifically calls for a commitment from the government to implement the findings into law. This is absolutely crucial.

Unmitigated AI Risks

So why does this petition matter? We’ve already seen Geoffrey Hinton’s warning. But his prediction isn’t unique. In a survey of 2,778 researchers who’d published in top tier AI outlets, 38% of them said there was at least a 10% chance of human extinction from AI. Even if this worst case scenario doesn’t occur, there are a plethora of risks that AI poses to society which haven’t been mitigated or thought through by governments.

Perhaps the most notable risk is mass job losses. Professor Stuart Russell warned in his book, Human Compatible, that up to a billion jobs may be lost to AI, while only “five to ten million” data scientist or robot engineer jobs may emerge. That potentially leaves a deficit of 990 million unemployed people who have no jobs and no income – a societal earthquake of a prediction. A more conservative estimate from Goldman Sachs, puts the number of jobs affected by AI at 300 million. In the UK, the IPPR thinktank estimates that up to 8 million jobs could be permanently erased by AI. Meanwhile the Oxford Martin School analysed the vulnerability of jobs in the USA to ‘computerisation’ and estimates that 47% of employment is at risk.

The creative sector (writers, artists, musicians, actors, voice-over artists, etc.) is particularly vulnerable and first up in the firing line given what generative AI is already capable of. In 2024, the Society of Authors ran a survey which showed that 26% of illustrators and 36% of translators were already losing work to generative AI. KPMG looked at the percentage of tasks that could be automated by AI, and listed authors, writers, and translators as being most vulnerable with 43% of tasks potentially being automated. Once jobs are lost to AI, it will be too late to act – there is no turning back the clocks with the adoption of this unsafe technology. Thus, we have to be proactive and protect human jobs whilst they still exist, and before they’re permanently replaced.

Away from the unemployment catastrophe, the House of Lords published a report in February 2024, on large language models (LLMs) and generative AI. Some of the dangers they identify include: an elevated risk of cyber-attacks by malicious actors, aiding terrorism and the distribution of propaganda, the spread of synthetic child sexual abuse material, easier production and distribution of misinformation and disinformation, undermining democracy and elections, easier creation (and release) of chemical or biological agents, critical infrastructure failure (water, gas, electricity, and security systems), as well as discrimination, bias, and data protection issues.

The report goes on to state that, “Catastrophic risks resulting in thousands of UK fatalities and tens of billions in financial damages are not likely within three years, though this cannot be ruled out as next generation capabilities become clearer and open access models more widespread.”

It’s also worth noting that safety hasn’t been built into these AI systems. As Professor Stuart Russell explained to the House of Lords enquiry, “The security methods that exist are ineffective and they come from an approach that is basically trying to make AI systems safe as opposed to trying to make safe AI systems. It just does not work to do it after the fact.”

Thus, the foundations of AI likely need to be rebuilt, but profit-driven tech corporations are unlikely to do this willingly. Regulations are desperately needed, yet politicians have been reluctant to enact any.

Political Inaction

There is a concern that politicians will fail to regulate the tech industry, the same way they’ve failed to regulate the fossil fuel industry in the 37 years since we were warned about the climate crisis. One could also look at the lag time in regulating the pesticide industry, the CFC industry, and the tobacco industry, and come to the conclusion that politicians won’t voluntarily do the right thing without citizens demanding it.

If we look at what’s happening in the UK and the US, the picture is very bleak indeed. In January, the UK’s Labour government announced plans to “unleash” AI, by mainlining it “into the veins” of the country. In that announcement, the government refered to regulators as ‘blockers’, showing that they have no intention of regulating AI or keeping society safe. Instead, they’ve made it clear that they’ve taken the side of the billionaire tech titans.

In the US, Donald Trump revoked Biden’s Executive Order which assessed AI risks. He also announced Project Stargate, a joint venture that will pump $500bn into AI infrastructure and data centres.

Neither Starmer nor Trump has put any emphasis on regulations or safety, instead focusing on fulfilling the wants and needs of the tech corporations. The same tech corporations who spent $957m on lobbying in 2023. Money well spent, clearly.

Tech corporations shouldn’t be the ones determining our fate, given what’s at stake. By holding a citizens’ assembly and committing to implement the findings in full, we may just survive this monumental challenge and navigate a path through this turbulent century. One in which the benefits of AI can be reaped, while the risks are fully eliminated.

Summary

Our time for tackling the AI crisis is dwindling, and humanity simply won’t be able to simultaneously deal with the fallout of the AI crisis and the climate crisis – both of which are slamming into society concurrently.

Experts are clear on the growing danger that AI poses to society. We can either heed their warnings and try build a future to be proud of. Or we can let the alternative happen, which could see the downfall of human civilisation.

In Owen Eastwood’s book, Belonging, he talks about the Māori concept of whakapapa. He says, “Each of us are part of an unbreakable chain of people going back and forward in time. Back to our first ancestor at the beginning of time and into the future to the end of time.” We therefore have a responsibility to our ancestors, as well as to future generations. We can’t afford to be the weak link in the chain that connects us all. Not at this critical juncture. This burden has fallen on our shoulders. We have to rise up and meet our responsibility like all our ancestors who came before.

It’s sadly not much of an overstatement to say that the future of humanity depends on what we do next. So, let’s do the right thing. Together.

Please sign and share the petition here.

General E-mail Template for Contacting Political Representatives About AI

Dear

I’m writing in regards to the rapid advances in AI and related technologies, which pose massive threats to society, jobs, arts and culture, democracy, privacy, and our collective civilisation.

Many AI systems are trained on copyrighted data and this has been done without consent or compensation. The way that machine learning works is flawed and this means that control hasn’t been designed into AI, which could create unimaginable problems further down the line. But AI isn’t just a future threat. The large language models (LLMs) already in the public domain threaten the livelihoods of writers and authors. AI image, video and audio generators pose risks to the jobs of artists, actors, and musicians. When combined together, these types of AI can have a devastating impact on democracy, and ‘deepfakes’ could be used by malicious actors for cybercrime purposes.

Both AI and the introduction of robots into the workforce jeopardises jobs on a scale like never before. By one estimate, up to a billion jobs could be lost, with only around ten million new jobs created. Mass unemployment could result, leading to social unrest, extreme poverty, and skyrocketing homelessness.

Through neurotechnology, it’s already possible to create an image of what people are thinking about – the ultimate invasion of thought privacy. Killer robots have been deployed around the world over the last few years, and can be easily made and sold on the black market, threatening our collective safety. Meanwhile AGI poses an existential risk to our civilisation.

We have a limited period of time to act before AI becomes so embedded in modern life, that it can’t be extricated. I therefore urge you to act swiftly in outright banning the technology or holding a global citizens’ assembly on AI and using the guidelines that emerge to implement stringent regulations that forever protect and safeguard humanity.

With concern and expectation,

Selected Resources

Books

Human Compatible: AI and the Problem of Control by Stuart Russell
Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI by Yuval Noah Harari
The Alignment Problem: How Can Machines Learn Human Values? by Brian Christian
The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman
Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era by James Barrat
Code Dependent: Living in the Shadow of AI by Madhumita Murgia
Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? By Bill McKibben
For the Good of the World by A.C. Grayling
Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future by Martin Ford
Permanent Record by Edward Snowden
The People Vs Tech: How the Internet is Killing Democracy (and how we save it) by Jamie Bartlett
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff
Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark
1984 by George Orwell
Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom

AI Activism and Other

My cli-fi children’s picture book, Nanook and the Melting Arctic is available from Amazon’s global stores including Amazon UK and Amazon US. My eco-fiction children’s picture book, Hedgey-A and the Honey Bees about how pesticides affect bees, is available on Amazon’s global stores including Amazon UK and Amazon US.