King’s Speech: Labour to clamp down on AI

The UK Government will strengthen artificial intelligence (AI) regulation, the King’s Speech has confirmed.

Labour will introduce a new measures to target those developing the most powerful models.

This announcement confirms a major shift from the previous Tory government’s strategy on AI. Former prime minister Rishi Sunak championed a pro-innovation approach to AI regulation, setting up voluntary agreements between the government and companies and ruling out legislation in the short term.

It follows on from Labour's manifesto, where it had pledged to put certain elements of Sunak's voluntary code onto a statutory footing.

The speech also confirmed technology would underpin Labour's Planning and Infrastructure Bill, saying the government will “pursue sustainable growth by encouraging investment in industry, skills and new technologies”.

Meanwhile, the speech also said technology would be at the heart of Labour's energy plans, acknowledging the “new job opportunities that can come from leading the development of the technologies of the future”.

However, the speech failed to mention other key commitments from Labour's manifesto, including its pledge to ban sexual deepfakes and to create the National Data Library to centralise data resources.

Meanwhile, although not referred to in the speech, the Downing Street briefing document about the king’s speech confirms Labour will introduce a new bill to strengthen the UK’s cyber defenses.

The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill aims to equate UK regulation to that of the EU, which’s AI act Is set to come into force next month.  

It follows on from recent attacks on NHS services and the Ministry of Defence.

North of the border, a cyber-attack on NHS Dumfries and Galloway earlier this year, led to a large volume of personal data being leaked to the dark web.

The document also confirmed the government will introduce legislation to “harness the power of data for economic growth”.

The Digital Information and Smart Data Bill will establish a number of measures to ensure that data is shared to support innovation while remaining well-protected. 

These include Digital Verification Services, to help with things like pre-employment checks, and buying age restricted goods as well as Smart Data schemes, to allow for the secure sharing of a customer’s data upon their request, with authorised third-party providers.