The Science, Innovation and Technology Committee has today
published the Government response to a
report from the predecessor
Committee in the last Parliament on the governance of artificial
intelligence (AI).
The report, published in May
2024, followed an inquiry into the topic,
which examined the domestic and international developments in AI
governance since the Committee's August 2023 interim
report.
In its response, the Government broadly agreed with the
Committee's recommendation for AI-specific legislation to tackle
potential harms. It reiterated its commitment, made in the King's
Speech, to introduce legislation to place requirements on those
developing the most powerful artificial intelligence models. It
also highlighted an open consultation on Copyright and AI and
agreed with the committee's report that Government intervention
may be required to resolve this complex issue.
The Government also agreed with the Committee's recommendation to
strengthen the AI Safety Institute (AISI) and declared its
intention to put the AISI on a statutory footing. However, the
Government rejected the Committee's request for transparency on
the AISI's work with algorithm testing. It refused to confirm
which AI models the AISI has undertaken pre-deployment safety
testing on and to provide a summary of their findings, citing
commercial sensitivity and ongoing negotiations with leading
developers.
The response confirmed that the upcoming AI Opportunities Action
Plan, led by Matt Clifford, would address issues such as
infrastructure, talent and data access, including through a
National Data Library. The Government also agreed to set out how
researchers and startups can access increased computer capacity
and the AI Research Resource, but did not give an explicit
timeframe for a plan or proposed deliverables.
The Committee's report called for the Government to publish a
detailed AI public sector action plan, including identifying
areas that would benefit the most from the use of AI. While the
Government did not commit to implementing this exact
recommendation, the commissioning of an AI Opportunities Action
Plan and the ongoing work to establish the Department for
Science, Innovation and Technology as the digital centre of
government could, depending on their final outputs, go a
significant way towards fulfilling the vision set out by the
Committee.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
ยท The predecessor Committee's
report, Governance of AI, was published on 28 May 2024 can be
found here
