Following last week’s AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park, which
underlined the need for global action to ensure the safe
development of ‘frontier AI’, today’s King’s Speech was notable
for the absence of AI-specific legislative proposals., says
, chair of the Science,
Innovation & Technology Committee.
In August the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee
published an interim report in its major inquiry on AI, which set
out 12 key governance challenges that must be addressed before
the technology outpaces efforts to regulate and ensure
its safe deployment. The interim report called for “a
tightly-focussed AI Bill in the new session of Parliament”, to
underpin the risk-based approach set out in the Government’s AI
white paper, published in March.
Commenting on the King’s Speech, Rt Hon MP said:
“This new session of Parliament will be the last opportunity to
pass significant legislation before the General Election, and in
all likelihood, before 2025. It is therefore disappointing to see
the Government decide against including an AI Bill in today’s
King’s Speech.
“In March the Government said that it would consider legislating
to establish ‘due regard’ duties for existing regulators, as part
of the implementation of the high-level principles set out in the
AI white paper. In our interim report, we called for the
introduction of such a Bill, and warned that if the Government
decided not to legislate then it could be surpassed by other
jurisdictions – particularly the European Union and United
States.
“Since our interim report was published both the EU and US have
moved closer to setting de facto AI governance standards, and
whilst the UK demonstrated its convening power at Bletchley Park,
the international regulatory picture is likely to look very
different by 2025 – simply put, it may by then be too late for
the UK to differentiate itself in any meaningful way.
“I would therefore urge the Government to reconsider its current
stance, and commit to introducing a tightly-focussed AI Bill in
the upcoming response to its white paper consultation. My
Committee will continue to consider these issues in depth,
including at our next hearing on Wednesday 8 November with the
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and the Prime
Minister’s summit representative, Matt Clifford”
