The U.K. government has finally publishing its response to an AI regulation consultation it kicked off last March, when it put out a white paper setting out a preference for relying on existing laws and regulators, combined with “context-specific” guidance, to lightly supervise the disruptive high tech sector. In a press release ahead of publication the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is spinning the plan as a boost to U.K. “global leadership” via targeted measures — including £100 million+ (~$125 million) in extra funding, to bolster AI regulation and fire up innovation. Per DSIT’s press release, there will be £10 million (~$12.5 million) in additional funding for regulators to “upskill” for their expanded workload, i.e. of figuring out how to apply existing sectoral rules to AI developments and actually enforcing existing laws on AI apps that breach the rules (including, it is envisaged, by developing their own tech tools).
“The fund will help regulators develop cutting-edge research and practical tools to monitor and address risks and opportunities in their sectors, from telecoms and healthcare to finance and education. For example, this might include new technical tools for examining AI systems,” DSIT writes. It did not provide any detail on how many additional staff could be recruited with the extra funding. The release also touts — a notably larger — £90 million (~$113 million) in funding the government says will be used to establish nine research hubs to foster homegrown AI innovation in areas, such as healthcare, math and chemistry, which it suggests will be situated around the U.K. The 90:10 funding split is suggestive of where the government wants most of the action to happen, with the bucket marked ‘homegrown AI development’ the clear winner here, while “targeted” enforcement on associated AI safety risks is envisaged as the comparatively small-time add-on operation for regulators. (Although it’s worth noting the government has previously announced £100 million for an AI taskforce, focused on safety R&D around advanced AI models.)
DSIT confirmed to TechCrunch that the £10 million fund for expanding regulators’ AI capabilities has not yet been established — saying the government is “working at pace” to get the mechanism set up. “However, it’s key that we do this properly in order to achieve our objectives and ensure that we are getting value for taxpayers’ money,” a department spokesperson told us.
The £90 million funding for the nine AI research hubs covers five years, starting from February 1. “The funding has already been awarded with investments in the nine hubs ranging from £7.2 million to £10 million,” the spokesperson added. They did not offer details on the focus of the other six research hubs. The other top-line headline today is that the government is sticking to its plan not to introduce any new legislation for artificial intelligence yet. “The UK government will not rush to legislate, or risk implementing ‘quick-fix’ rules that would soon become outdated or ineffective,” writes DSIT. “Instead, the government’s context-based approach means existing regulators are empowered to address AI risks in a targeted way.” Although in an Executive Summary to its response to the consultation, Michelle Donelan, the secretary of state for science, innovation, and technology, also writes that “the challenges posed by AI technologies will ultimately require legislative action in every country once understanding of risk has matured”.
Additionally, she suggests that “further targeted binding requirements” may be required to tackle the challenges posed by “highly capable general-purpose AI systems” to ensure the handful of AI giants behind these models are “accountable” for making their technologies “sufficiently safe”. But there’s no binding requirements on the table as yet — as that would require new legislation.
“As AI systems advance in capability and societal impact, it is clear that some mandatory measures will ultimately be required across all jurisdictions to address potential AI-related harms, ensure public safety, and let us realise the transformative opportunities that the technology offers. However, acting before we properly understand the risks and appropriate mitigations would harm our ability to benefit from technological progress while leaving us unable to adapt quickly to emerging risks,” Donelan adds. “We are going to take our time to get this right — we will legislate when we are confident that it is the right thing to do.” This staying the course is unsurprising — given the government is facing an election this year which polls suggest it will almost certainly lose. So this looks like an administration that’s fast running out of time to write laws on anything. Certainly, time is dwindling in the current parliament. (And, well, passing legislation on a tech topic as complex as AI clearly isn’t in the current prime minister’s gift at this point in the political calendar.)
