While Bill Gates and politicians debate AI safety in Delhi, a different kind of safety crisis is unfolding much closer to home. Prison officers in England and Wales faced 73 suspected assailant incidents in 2023 — more than double the 35 recorded the year before.

The 108.6% surge represents the sharpest year-on-year increase in violence against prison staff in recent memory. Each number represents a guard who went to work and faced a knife, makeshift weapon, or fists. (Source: Ministry of Justice, Safety in Custody -- safety-in-custody-assaults-dec-23 -- 3_2_Assaults_by_role)

This isn't about ordinary prison scuffles. The Ministry of Justice classifies these as 'suspected assailant' incidents — the most serious category of violence where staff face genuine threat of harm. These are the attacks that send officers to hospital, force early retirements, and leave experienced guards questioning whether the job is worth the risk.

The timing stings. As world leaders focus on hypothetical risks from artificial intelligence, the very real humans keeping Britain's most dangerous criminals locked up are being attacked at unprecedented rates. There's no algorithm to predict when a lifer will lash out, no machine learning model to spot a brewing riot.

Prison violence doesn't happen in isolation. Overcrowding has pushed the system to breaking point. Staff shortages mean fewer experienced officers on each wing. Budget cuts have reduced rehabilitation programmes that might otherwise channel aggression into something constructive. When prisoners have nothing to lose and little hope of improvement, violence becomes inevitable.

The doubling of these incidents suggests something fundamental has shifted inside Britain's prisons. Either the most dangerous inmates are becoming more desperate, or the conditions that previously kept violence in check have deteriorated beyond repair. Possibly both.

For context, prison officers already face assault rates far higher than any other public sector workers. Police officers, paramedics, teachers — none face the concentrated, sustained threat that comes with being locked inside with people who have committed society's worst crimes. Now that threat has doubled in twelve months.

The contrast with today's AI summit couldn't be sharper. Politicians will spend hours debating whether machines might one day pose risks to human safety. Meanwhile, the humans charged with protecting society from its most violent members are facing those risks right now, every shift, behind bars that most of us never think about.