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BLETCHLEY PARK, England — Rishi Sunak got the family photo he’s long been waiting for as U.S. VP Kamala Harris shuffled up alongside EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and nearly two dozen political leaders and tech execs at Bletchley Park on Thursday.
But one figure was conspicuous by his absence.
Although Elon Musk had been slated to attend both days of Sunak’s AI Safety Summit, the tech tycoon failed to appear on the second day, two U.K. government officials said.
One of those officials, a No. 10 staffer, played down Musk’s absence, claiming day two was more for international leaders — but execs from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Deepmind, Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI and InflectionAI all turned out for the family photo.
The billionaire owner of X, Tesla and SpaceX appeared at the first day of the summit, but was quiet during closed-door roundtables, according to those present. On Thursday a more select group of tech execs and representatives from countries including France, Germany, the U.S., Italy and Australia attended.
Speaking on the POLITICO Power Play podcast on Wednesday, U.K. PM Sunak defended his decision to invite Musk to a one-on-one conversation, which is still expected to go ahead on Thursday evening and will be broadcast via X, marking the end of the summit.
“I think actually if you listen to what Elon Musk is saying, he’s someone who for a long time has been talking about the potential risk of AI and its existential risks,” Sunak said. “But he also talks very passionately as he did today about the incredible benefits that AI can bring — and what I want to do is make sure people are reassured.”