UK Drafting AI Regulations, But Not Rushing to Introduce Them

The United Kingdom has reportedly begun to draft regulations to govern artificial intelligence (AI).

Policy officials are in the early stages of drafting legislation, but the government is unlikely to introduce a bill until late 2024 or early 2025, after an AI conference that will be hosted by France, Bloomberg reported Monday (April 15).

A spokesman for U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Dave Pares, told the media outlet Monday that the government isn’t in a “rush” to introduce a bill but has said that all countries would eventually need to introduce legislation regarding AI.

In a separate effort, officials at two government departments have proposed adding rules to U.K. copyright legislation that would allow companies and individuals to prevent the scraping of their content for use by AI language models, according to the report.

Sunak hosted the first summit of world leaders addressing AI, per the report. He has said that countries should not “rush to regulate” the technology, at a time when the European Union (EU) passed such a law earlier this year, the Chinese government requires that companies in that country get approvals before producing AI services, and some U.S. cities and states have passed laws with limited scope.

The November summit hosted by Sunak drew leaders from 28 nations and prominent figures from the tech industry to discuss AI safety. During the event, the leaders signed the Bletchley Declaration, which recognizes the risks associated with AI technology.

In the United States, the board of the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) voted in March to move forward with new rules regulating how businesses use AI and collect personal data. These rules aim to set guidelines for how AI and personal data can affect Californians in areas like jobs, housing, insurance, healthcare and education.

Also in March, the European Union’s parliament approved the world’s first comprehensive AI regulations. The new law requires both high-impact, general-purpose AI models and high-risk AI systems to adhere to detailed transparency duties and EU copyright regulations. It also limits the ability of governments to employ real-time biometric surveillance in public areas, restricting its use to specific scenarios.