An arms race for artificial intelligence (AI) supremacy, triggered by recent panic over Chinese chatbot DeepSeek, risks amplifying the existential dangers of superintelligence, according to one of the “godfathers” of AI.

Canadian machine learning pioneer Yoshua Bengio, author of the first International AI Safety Report to be presented at an international AI summit in Paris next week, warns unchecked investment in computational power for AI without oversight is dangerous.

“The effort is going into who’s going to win the race, rather than how do we make sure we are not going to build something that blows up in our face,” Mr Bengio says.

He warns that military and economic races “result in cutting corners on ethics, cutting corners on responsibility and on safety. It’s unavoidable”.

Mr Bengio worked on neural networks and machine learning, the software architecture that underpins modern AI models.

He is in London, along with other AI pioneers to receive the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, the most prestigious global award for engineering, in recognition of AI and its potential.

He’s enthusiastic about its benefits for society, but the pivot away from AI regulation by Donald Trump‘s White House and frantic competition among big tech companies for more powerful AI models is a worrying shift.

‘Superhuman systems becoming more powerful’

“We are building systems that are more and more powerful; becoming superhuman in some dimensions,” he says.

“As these systems become more powerful, they also become extraordinarily more valuable, economically speaking.

“So the magnitude of, ‘wow, this is going to make me a lot of money’ is motivating a lot of people. And of course, when you want to sell products, you don’t want to talk about the risks.”

But not all the “godfathers” of AI are so concerned.

Take Yann LeCun, Meta’s chief AI scientist, also in London to share in the QEPrize.

“We have been deluded into thinking that large language models are intelligent, but really, they’re not,” he says.

“We don’t have machines that are nearly as smart as a house cat, in terms of understanding the physical world.”

Within three to five years, Mr LeCun predicts, AI will have some aspects of human-level intelligence. Robots, for example, that can perform tasks they’ve not been programmed or trained to do.

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But, he argues, rather than make the world less safe, open-source AI models such as DeepSeek – a chatbot developed by a Chinese company that rivals the best of America’s big tech with a tenth of the computing power – demonstrates no one will dominate for long.

“If the US decides to clam up when it comes to AI for geopolitical reasons, or, commercial reasons, then you’ll have innovation someplace else in the world. DeepSeek showed that,” he says.

The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering prize is awarded each year to engineers whose discoveries have, or promise to have, the greatest impact on the world.

Previous recipients include the pioneers of photovoltaic cells in solar panels, wind turbine technology and neodymium magnets found in hard drives, and electric motors.

Science minister Lord Vallance, who chairs the QEPrize foundation, says he is alert to the potential risks of AI.

Organisations such as the UK’s new AI Safety Institute are designed to foresee and prevent the potential harms AI “human-like” intelligence might bring.

But he is less concerned about one nation or company having a monopoly on AI.

“I think what we’ve seen in the last few weeks is it’s much more likely that we’re going to have many companies in this space, and the idea of single-point dominance is rather unlikely,” he says.

The Treasury Select Committee has sent a formal notice to HM Revenue & Customs demanding answers to critical questions about how it has been enforcing trade sanctions on Russia, following a Sky News investigation into the government department.

Last month Sky News reported that while HMRC had issued six fines in relation to sanction-breaking since 2022, it would not name the firms sanctioned or provide any further detail on what they did wrong. HMRC also admitted it had no idea how many investigations it was currently carrying out into sanction-breaking.

The admissions raised questions about the robustness of Britain’s trade sanctions regime, described by government ministers as the toughest in British history.

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While the UK has introduced rules preventing the export of certain goods to Russia, banned items are still flowing into the country via third countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Some suspect that part of the reason these flows continue is that HMRC is not enforcing the rules as robustly as it could be.

Following Sky News’ investigation, the chair of the Treasury Select Committee (TSC), Dame Meg Hiller, has written a letter to the chief executive of HMRC, Sir Jim Harra, with 10 questions about HMRC’s conduct in the enforcement of sanctions.

Among the questions, the TSC chair asks: “Why doesn’t HMRC publish information on breaches in sanctions in a similar way to the Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), which gives the details of the company, how it breached sanctions and the amount of penalty issued?”

Many other countries around the world – most notably the United States – routinely “name and shame” those who break sanctions, in part as a deterrent and in part to inform other businesses about what it takes to break the rules. But HMRC instead protects the privacy of those who break sanctions.

The TSC has been scrutinising the sanctions regime in recent months, examining loopholes in the legislation and its enforcement. HMRC has been asked to respond to the letter by 17 February.

Millions of people face council tax hikes over normal thresholds after the government allowed six areas to boost rates above the usual 5%.

More than two million people will be hit by increases of between 5 and 10%.

Windsor and Maidenhead Council wanted to increase council tax by 25% but the plan was blocked – instead it will go up by 9%.

Newham Council will go up by the same amount, while Bradford Council will put up taxes by 10% and Birmingham, Somerset and Trafford councils will all put up rates by 7.5%.

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Speaking to Sky News’ Kay Burley, health and social care minister Karin Smyth defended the above normal increases – saying “many more councils” asked for permission to hike taxes, but were refused.

She said the ones given the nod “are particularly desperate” and need the money to keep “basic services running”.

The Labour MP was quick to blame the Conservatives, saying local government was left in a “really, really dark state” by the previous government.

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner – who is also the secretary of state for local government – confirmed the move on Monday.

She said the average council tax increase across the country would not surpass last year’s total of 5.1%.

She also said more than £69bn in central funding would be made available to regional administrators, a rise of 6.8% compared to the 2024-25 period. Close to £4bn has also been put aside to help councils with social care.

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The Conservatives accused Labour of “pushing the burden on to taxpayers after they promised to freeze council tax”.

Shadow communities secretary Kevin Hollinrake said: “Their Local Government Finance Settlement will mean that councils will have to raise council tax to accommodate Labour’s jobs tax.

“This means that local people will pay more for less when it comes to local services, especially in rural areas which are losing the Rural Services Delivery Grant that Labour have abolished.

“The Labour Party have made false promises to local people, promising to freeze council tax while many councils will now have to raise it due to Labour’s political choice to raise council tax.”

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The County Councils Network, which represents 37 administrations, said they are facing pressure from the government’s decisions to increase national insurance contributions for employers, and increases to minimum wage.

Barry Lewis, the network’s finance spokesperson said: “More than four in five CCN members say they are in a worse position than before the autumn budget and this finance settlement, and one-third say their service reductions next year will now be severe.

“Considering there is very little fat left to cut from many of these services already, a further reduction will have a material impact on our residents.”

Ms Rayner confirmed allocations worth £502m to assist councils with the impact of increases to employer national insurance contributions.