'Never say never' but Govt resists fresh calls for AI law

The UK Government is sticking to guns on new laws covering artificial intelligence, insisting that it is a case of “never say never” but it will not legislate until it has a better understanding of the technology, despite growing pressure from MPs, new EU regulation and even the launch of a Private Members’ Bill.

Appearing before Parliament’s Science, Innovation & Technology Committee, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation & Technology Michelle Donelan warned that a hard regulatory approach to AI could risk stifling innovation in the emerging sector.

Her comments follow concerns aired by the committee in the summer, which demanded the Government introduced AI measures in the Data Protection & Digital Information Bill (No.2) or risk falling behind in the race for regulation.

In fact, the first signs of discontent emerged in June, when consumer group BEUC, whose UK members include Which? and Citizen’s Advice, urged all data protection regulators to “launch investigations now” into generative AI and “not wait idly for all kinds of consumer harm to have happened before they take action”.

A month later, the UK’s Ada Lovelace Institute – named after the daughter of poet Lord Byron who was a trailblazer for women in maths and science – called for an urgent rethink, citing severely limited legal protections for consumers to seek redress when AI goes wrong.

Then the Periodical Publishers Association joined with the European Publishers Council, Publishers’ Licensing Services and Association of Learned & Professional Society Publishers in calling for the implementation of a legal footing for transparency provisions “to ensure that owners of AI systems declare how they have used publishers’ content so that compensation issues can be identified and addressed”.

Meanwhile, late last month, the Artificial Intelligence (Regulation) Bill was introduced in Parliament as a Private Members’ Bill in the Lords by Conservative peer Lord Holmes of Richmond.

Among the measures it calls for is the establishment of the AI Authority, which will be charged to co-ordinating a review of relevant legislation, including product safety, privacy, and consumer protection, to assess its suitability to address the challenges and opportunities presented by AI.

It also calls for any business that develops, deploys, or uses AI to have a designated AI officer.

And last week, Brussels finally agreed the wording for the EU’s AI Act, which committee members warned could be “difficult to deviate” from, citing the implementation of GDPR, which has set the standards for data protection legislation around the world.

At the Science, Innovation & Technology Committee hearing, South Basildon and East Thurrock Tory MP Stephen Metcalfe asked Donelan whether she thought the EU’s regulation gave the trading block any advantage over the UK.

In response, Donelan said: “There are downsides to the legislation because it takes too long, as the technology develops at a faster pace. We are not saying that we will never regulate AI, rather, but the point is: we don’t want to rush and get it wrong and stymie innovation.”

When committee chair Greg Clark, the Tory MP for Tunbridge Wells, asked how the Government intends to tackle potential policy fragmentation, Donelan said her department was working to create a central regulator body within her organisation to coordinate AI oversight.

“One of its key functions will be horizon-scanning to help the regulators identify some of the gaps in their policy implementation and support their operations,” she said.