Artificial Intelligence: UK and EU regulatory round-up

UK House of Lords report

On 2nd February 2024, the UK’s House of Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee released a report into large language models (LLM). LLMs are a type of generative artificial intelligence that can recognise and generate text. They are trained on large amounts of data. An example is ChatGPT . The Committee had launched an inquiry into LLMs to evaluate what actions should be taken within the next three years to ensure LLMs benefit people, the economy and society. See below for more details.

UK Government response to White Paper

Separately, on 6th February 2024, the UK government responded to the AI Regulation White Paper consultation. The White Paper was originally published in March 2023. In this response, the Government has set out its “early thinking” about questions to consider for the “next stage of regulatory approach”.

EU AI Act EU Council Approval

The EU AI Act is in what we expect will be its final text. It had approval from the Council of the EU (which represents all member states) on 2nd February 2024. Before it becomes law, the text will be considered by MEPs in the European Parliament, which is scheduled for mid-April. Once adopted, provisions will enter into force progressively over the two years after (some prohibitions will enter force after six months, some provisions will enter force after 12 months, and remaining provisions will come into force after 24 months).

What should I do?

The EU AI Act reaches its final stages, whereas the UK approach is still in development. The Committee report, and response to the White Paper, show the thought processes of the two houses of the UK Parliament.

Read on for more information about how the EU and UK are approaching regulation of AI.

What else do I need to know about these developments?

UK House of Lords Report

The Committee of the House of Lords were “optimistic” about the new technology of LLMs. However, it also identified “credible threats to public safety, societal values, open market competition and UK economic competitiveness”. The Committee stated that the government has had a “narrow focus” on AI safety, and encourages it to rebalance accordingly to ensure the UK doesn’t fall behind other countries.

There are 10 summary recommendations to the government. These include: ensuring market competition between AI developers; protecting copyright; and prioritising threats to cyber security, child sexual abuse material, bias and disinformation. The Committee also recommends greater powers for regulators, and that whilst the UK can learn from the EU (i.e. the AI Act as mentioned earlier) and other countries, it should “forge its own path”. We don’t think it’s likely there will be an AI regulator in the UK anytime soon – but other regulators will be required to use their existing powers to regulate AI (with further support and resourcing identified as a necessity) – that’s the premise of the UK’s principles based approach.

Our ‘Commercially Connected Shorts’ newsletter contains more detail on the Committee’s report.

In addition, protecting copyright and IP issues from data scraping is of particular concern to many. Our EU AI Act podcast episode goes into more detail about these issues.

UK Government response to White Paper

The Government has noted that it “will legislate when we are confident that it is the right thing to do”. It has noted that regulators had already created guidance on AI, for example the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)’s guidance is all about complying with data protection when creating AI systems. You can read our briefing on the ICO’s recently announced consultation series on AI, the input of which will be used to update their guidance on these technologies.

There’s a £100m fund to advance research and development on new AI innovations and to support regulators’ technical capabilities. Regulators will be given money to develop “cutting-edge research and practical tools” to regulate AI in the areas they regulate. Regulators (such as the ICO) have been asked to publish updates to their strategic approach to AI by 30th April 2024, and will be expected to set out by that date an outline of the steps they are taking and an explanation of their current capability to address the technology.

Further reading

• EU AI Act legal insights podcast
• ICO call for views on generative AI and data protection
• UK AI Safety Summit
• EU AI Act final stages with ban on facial recognition
• Data scraping: IP rights and risks
• Webinar: unlocking generative AI and copyright law
• Patenting AI innovations in the UK
• Getty wins round one in UK AI case