UK Government Adopts a “Pro-Innovation” Approach to AI Regulation

By:  Marianna Drake, Marty Hansen, Lisa Peets & Mark Young (Covington/Inside Tech Media)

The UK Government has released a new report (White Paper) called “A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation”, expanding on the approach to AI outlined in its 2022 AI Governance and Regulation Policy Statement. This follows the announcement in the Spring Budget 2023 of a plan to create an expert taskforce to enhance the UK’s capabilities in AI foundation models and develop guidance on intellectual property law and generative AI.

In the White Paper, the UK Government states that it will not introduce new laws or establish a new regulator for AI, in contrast to the EU’s proposed AI regulation. Instead, it will require existing regulators like the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to take responsibility for promoting and overseeing responsible AI in their respective sectors. The government will establish new support and oversight functions within central government to strengthen the regulators’ activities. This approach is already being implemented in certain regulated areas in the UK, such as the financial services sector, where the Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority jointly released a Discussion Paper on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in October 2022, and the ICO updated its Guidance on AI and Data Protection in March 2023…

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