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Sir Keir Starmer said his government would “harness the facility of AI” – but a bill to control the brand new technology was shelved – a move that surprised many figures within the technology industry.
Wednesday's King's Speech said the Labour government would “seek to introduce appropriate laws to impose requirements on those working to develop essentially the most powerful artificial intelligence models”.
But among the many 40 bills announced on the opening of Parliament, there was no specific AI bill. Other missing measures included voting rights for 16-year-olds and welfare reform.
Science Minister Peter Kyle, whose department oversees work on AI, is confident that one other measure will be accomplished and introduced later in the primary session of Parliament.
Allies of Kyle said the AI bill had already been delayed by his department's vote because his department already supports a digital information and smart data bill and a separate cybersecurity bill.
They said the second measure was urgently needed to update Britain's cybersecurity framework after it was left in “a terrible state” by the previous Conservative government. “We hadn't planned this,” said one in all Kyle's staff. “It wasn't even mentioned in our manifesto.”
Kyle's allies said the AI bill is essentially complete and, in its current form, would offer mandatory government access to essentially the most powerful generation of latest AI models for testing and evaluation.
But 10 Downing Street urged caution: “It is crucial that we get this right,” said a spokesman for Starmer.
A senior technology sector official said: “I believe they decided to not bring this (AI regulation) forward now because they didn’t need to jeopardise their growth expectations.” He noted that introducing binding regulations at this early stage of the federal government might be seen as a drag on growth for an important sector.
About half of the bills chosen for the King's Speech were touted as changes that will boost Britain's economic performance – something the brand new government has described as its most significant task.
Former Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warned against excessive or heavy-handed regulation within the House of Commons on Wednesday. “We should all watch out to not jeopardise this country's leading position on this area,” he said.
There were quite a few other bills that didn’t make it into the ultimate version at Starmer's first standard event.
These included proposals for the compulsory resignation of peers from the House of Lords at the top of every parliamentary term by which they reached the age of 80, and a commitment to introduce voting rights for 16- and 17-year-olds – each of which were election guarantees.
There was no laws to create one other wave of “latest towns” because the Labour Party had long promised. However, a variety process for suitable sites for the brand new urban centres is anticipated to start in the approaching weeks.
No bill has been tabled that will pave the best way for Starmer's promise to establish an integrity and ethics commission to “ensure probity” in the general public service.
Nor has there been any targeted motion on Britain's ever-increasing social spending or on welfare reform – a difficulty that has now been shelved by a brand new royal commission.
