A private members’ bill aimed at regulating artificial intelligence has been re-introduced in the House of Lords.

We commented on the Artificial Intelligence (Regulation) Bill here when its previous iteration received its second reading last year.

Introduced by Lord Holmes of Richmond, the Bill takes a different approach from the current position of the Government on regulating AI. The most obvious difference is that Lord Holmes believes that “it is time to legislate”, rather than to proceed with the Government’s current strategy that avoids statutory intervention (at least for now), preferring instead that existing regulators implement its ‘pro-innovation’ approach to AI.

Among other things, the Bill envisages the establishment of a new ‘AI Authority’ that would “look across” all existing regulators to ensure that they take account of AI and that their approaches are aligned.  The AI Authority would be guided by a number of principles set out in the Bill which broadly align with principles that have previously been espoused by the Government, but with the difference that they would be on a statutory footing. The Bill also requires that those involved in the training of AI models assure the AI authority that “they use data and IP by informed consent” and “comply with all applicable IP and copyright obligations”.

During a debate on the Bill last year, Lord Holmes explained that “it is time to bring forward good legislation and the positive powers of right-size regulation. What this always brings is clarity, certainty, consistency, security and safety. When it comes to artificial intelligence, we do not currently have that in the United Kingdom. Clarity and certainty, craved by consumers and businesses, is a driver of innovation, inward investment, pro-consumer protection and pro-citizen rights”.  He also warned that if the Government continued with its approach of failing to legislate, businesses and organisations would “understandably, but unfortunately, align to the EU AI Act”.

In response, the Minister at the time, Viscount Camrose, reiterated the previous  government’s position that a non-statutory approach is preferable to the introduction of hastily drafted legislation that risks both being ineffective at addressing any risks associated with AI, whilst also stifling innovation.

Since then, the new Government has promised to introduce new rules to address AI, but details are still relatively thin, and there are no signs that an AI Bill is on the immediate horizon.

Lord Holmes has expressed his frustration at the lack of progress in this area, prompting him to re-introduce the Bill: “we have been here before. I last introduced my AI Bill in November 2023. I thought it was urgent then, it is even more urgent now, but the Government seems to be going in the opposite direction”.

Responding to the re-introduction of the Bill, a Government spokesperson has been quoted as saying that “this Government remains committed to bringing forward legislation which allows us to safely realise the enormous benefits of AI for years to come. As you would expect, we are continuing to engage extensively to refine our proposals and will launch a public consultation in due course to ensure our approach is future-proofed and effective against this fast-evolving technology”.

The Bill will move to Second Reading in due course. To read more, click here.