The Labour Party Manifesto was launched today, with some interesting policies on AI, data and regulation.
As the party on course to win the UK's general election on 4th July, the manifesto is a good indicator of future UK policy. On AI, Labour pledged to introduce “binding regulation on the handful of companies developing the most powerful AI models” and ban "the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes.
”Labour will also promote datasharing in the public sector, and create a new Regulatory Innovation Office to support regulators who are “currently ill-equipped to deal with the dramatic development of new technologies.” (It is unclear how this will interact with the current Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum.)
To quote directly from page 35 of the manifesto:
We will ensure our industrial strategy supports the development of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) sector, [and] removes planning barriers to new datacentres.
And we will create a National Data Library to bring together existing research programmes and help deliver data-driven public services, whilst maintaining strong safeguards and ensuring all of the public benefit.
Labour will scrap short funding cycles for key R&D institutions in favour of ten-year budgets that allow meaningful partnerships with industry to keep the UK at the forefront of global innovation.
We will work with universities to support spinouts; and work with industry to ensure start-ups have the access to finance they need to grow.
Labour will create a new Regulatory Innovation Office, bringing together existing functions across government. This office will help regulators update regulation, speed up approval timelines, and co-ordinate issues that span existing boundaries.
Labour will ensure the safe development and use of AI models by introducing binding regulation on the handful of companies developing the most powerful AI models and by banning the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes.
The support for start-ups and university spin-outs seems promising for the tech industry, though it is surprising to see support for the building of data centres by removing planning barriers (but note the word "barriers," not "restrictions"). How this will fit with the UK's green agenda is not clear, but it is certainly a strong signal that the tech sector is key to the UK's economic growth.
On the regulatory side, it looks like the UK may have its own AI Act in the coming months if Labour win (though I didn’t see any mention of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill, unless a resurrected form of the DPDI will be the vehicle for public sector data-sharing..).
It will be interesting to see how the UK approaches AI regulation. Might we see Lord Holmes's Artificial Intelligence (Regulation) Bill become government policy?
