AI White Paper is published for consultation

What happened

• The UK Government’s White Paper; ‘A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation’ has been published and is out for consultation.
• The White Paper claims that the UK is third in the world in terms of AI Research & Development and that a third of Europe’s AI companies are in the UK (this is twice as many as any of the other European countries).
• The government proposes to implement a proportionate, future-proof and pro-innovation framework for regulating AI.
• Through this new approach, the government aims to help the UK harness the opportunities and benefits that AI technologies present.  
• The proposal sets out 5 principles, intended to underpin the regulatory framework and manage AI risks. They are (i) safety, security and robustness (ii) appropriate transparency and explainability (iii) fairness (iv) accountability and governance and (v) contestability and redress.
• These principles will not be enforced using legislation and no AI regulator will be appointed. Instead, existing sector regulators will be expected to implement the non-statutory framework underpinned by the 5 principles above.
• During the initial implementation period, there will be ongoing collaboration with regulators to identify any barriers to the proportionate application of the principles and evaluate whether the non-statutory framework is working.
• If it is found that the framework can be implemented effectively without the need to legislate, the government will not introduce a statutory duty on regulators requiring them to have ‘due regard’ to the principles.

Why it matters

• AI is already delivering major advances and efficiencies in many areas. It quietly automates aspects of our everyday activities.
• Businesses operating in AI need parameters to assist them and enable them to handle the huge opportunities presented by digital intelligence.
• The government does not want rigid and onerous legislative requirements on businesses to restrict AI innovation and reduce their ability to respond quickly to future technological advances.
• The result is a ‘light touch’ approach; a principles based one, instead of a prescriptive legislative framework
• Businesses will of course, need to be accountable for their decisions on AI development/deployment because the ‘pro-innovation approach’ involves tolerating a certain degree of risk.  

The ICO has provided further information at   What are the accountability and governance implications of AI? | ICO

Next steps – the government’s consultation on the White Paper closes on 21 June 2023. 

In the following six months, it will review the responses to its consultation and adapt the framework accordingly. 

What happened

• The ICO discovered that TikTok had breached the UK GDPR between May 2018 and July 2020 and has imposed a civil monetary penalty of £12.7m.
• Up to 1.4 million UK children under 13 were using TikTok, contrary to its terms of service, which included a requirement for parental consent.
• TikTok breached its own rules not to allow children under 13 to create accounts without parental consent and then used their personal data without it.
• TikTok failed to provide adequate information to individuals using their platform, about how their data would be collected, used and shared in a simple, understandable way. Without this information, children in particular, were unable to make informed choices whether to engage with the platform.
• Additionally, TikTok failed to carry out adequate checks to identify and remove underage children from its platform where it was discovered that parental consent had not been given.

Why it matters