The British Board of Film Classification has announced that it has received a grant from the Government’s Regulatory Innovation Office to support the development of its AI compliance tool, Mira.

Mira promises to “redefine digital content reviews, accelerate global compliance and transform online content safety and classification” through its AI-powered content scanning solution that automatically generates “comprehensive, standardised, territory-agnostic compliance metadata at speed and scale to accelerate global content compliance”.

According to the BBFC’s press release, Mira’s metadata “identifies the strength, severity and timing of compliance issues, helping the industry stay on top of compliance across all digital content from film to social media video.” It will also save time and resources on content reviews, reducing human error and bias while maintaining “essential human oversight to ensure decisions remain rooted in regulatory expertise”.

The BBFC is now in the process of developing Mira into a user-ready product over the next 12 months.

Commenting on the announcement, the CEO of the BBFC, David Austin, said “I am absolutely thrilled that the BBFC has been awarded nearly £1 million from the Regulators’ Pioneer Fund. Global content distribution has reached extraordinary levels and local compliance standards are constantly evolving. Only through embracing technology can the BBFC keep up with the challenge of protecting audiences. The funding is a huge help in harnessing the power of AI to innovate and better protect audiences online. As a regulator-created tool, Mira’s design is firmly rooted in robust regulatory principles and the BBFC’s public protection mandate. A user-ready Mira will establish the UK as a leader in global video regulatory innovation, creating a scalable product that reduces costs for the creative industry, while allowing content to be brought to market safely, legally, quickly, and affordably”.

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