King Charles confirms UK AI bill is coming, but details yet to be figured out

King Charles confirmed that legislation to regulate artificial intelligence is coming under the UK’s new Labour government, but stopped short of providing details in his speech at the first Parliament session under the new government on Wednesday (17 July). 

“[The government] will seek to establish the appropriate legislation to place requirements on those working to develop the most powerful artificial intelligence models,” said King Charles, echoing previous statements from the Labour Party, which won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections on 4 July. 

AI regulation in the UK would mean the EU is less alone globally in regulating the technology, although details on the bill are scant and Britain’s approach could differ. 

The “requirements” mentioned by the King and Labour Party could mark a change of direction from the voluntary commitments pursued by the previous Conservative government.  

The UK has so far taken a more laissez-faire approach compared to the EU’s 500-page AI Act. The previous prime minister, Conservative Rishi Sunak said in October 2023 that faced with AI risks, “the UK’s answer is not to rush to regulate”. 

The Conservative government pursued a “pro-innovation” research and guidelines approach, investing heavily in an AI Safety Institute, public sector supercomputers and other central functions to guide sectoral agencies to govern AI in their own domains. 

But the Labour government appears to be trying to steer its own course on AI policy.  

The new secretary for science, innovation, and technology, Peter Kyle, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), and the Cabinet Office announced the expansion of DSIT on 8 July, including an incubator for AI technology.  

Labour has also promised to create a Regulatory Innovation Office to cut red tape. 

“Regulators are currently ill-equipped to deal with the dramatic development of new technologies, which often cut across traditional industries and sectors,” said the Labour party’s 2024 manifesto. 

The cross-sectoral office will bring together existing functions, help regulators update regulation and speed up approval timelines, according to the manifesto. 

While the introduction of a bill would mark a step closer to the hands-on approach in the AI Act, the UK will likely remain more lenient than the EU.  

Labour has promised to drive research and innovation in AI, introducing ten-year research budgets, removing planning barriers to data centres and creating a National Data library for data sharing, according to the party manifesto. 

In terms of restrictions, the party said it will ban the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes, which are usually generated by AI.  

The coming regulation will also focus on general-purpose AI, such as ChatGPT, according to the FT. 

This aspect was particularly controversial in the negotiations on the EU’s AI Act, with some countries arguing for less regulation so that EU companies could compete in this US-dominated landscape.

The government “will need to maintain momentum and bring forward a bill as soon as is practicable” Gaia Marcus, director of the UK tech research organisation Ada Lovelace Institute, said in an email to Euractiv.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic] 

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