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Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is expected to introduce a long-awaited Artificial Intelligence Bill this week, following through on Labour's manifesto promise to create binding rules to regulate the development of cutting-edge machine learning models.
The AI bill is one of 35 bills currently scheduled to be included in Wednesday's King Speech and aims to strengthen legal protections surrounding cutting-edge AI technology, according to people briefed on the plans.
The bill is likely to focus on creating large-scale language models, the general-purpose technology that underpins AI products such as OpenAI's ChatGPT.
Other legislation to be set out in the speech would allow Starmer's new government to remove hereditary peers from the House of Lords, give the Office for Budget Responsibility powers to publish its own forecasts of major financial events and implement worker protection reforms including a crackdown on zero-hours contracts and “fire and rehire” practices.
A Labour government would also revive the previous Conservative government's ambition to create a register of children missing from schools, and a cybersecurity bill to protect critical infrastructure from malicious foreign powers.
Starmer's legislative proposals will be closely watched as a sign of the scale of his ambitions in his first months as prime minister, a period which many argue will see him at the height of his powers.
His AI bill marks a shift from the strategy adopted by former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who was reluctant to push for legislative intervention in the development and deployment of AI models, fearing that heavy regulation would stifle the industry's growth.
Chancellor Sunak instead offered a voluntary agreement between government and business, ruling out short-term legislation.
The EU is taking a tougher approach: In March, the European Parliament approved some of the first and toughest rules regulating the technology through the Artificial Intelligence Act.
Last week, the Tony Blair Institute hosted guest speakers from the Labour government for a conference on the potential for AI to revolutionise government and public services.
The former Labour chancellor noted the importance of Sunak's AI safety summit, held at Bletchley Park last year, but said “we need to quickly build on this”, adding that the government needed to learn an entirely “new language” to harness the full potential of AI technology.
The Labour manifesto outlines plans to “ensure the safe development and use of AI models by introducing binding regulation on the small number of companies developing the most powerful AI models”.
The new Science and Technology Minister, Peter Kyle, said earlier this year that he wanted to introduce a “statutory code” that would require companies to publish “all testing data” and tell “what they are testing”.
Regulators, including the UK competition authority, are increasingly concerned about the potential harms of AI technology, ranging from the potential for algorithmic bias to affect vulnerable groups, to the possibility that general-purpose models could be used to create harmful material.
Speaking about Sunday's King's Speech, Speaker of the House of Commons Lucy Powell told the BBC that the 35 Bills were “not just a laundry list of things we want to do, they are well-considered, well-crafted Bills that we know can get passed in this Parliament”.
This week Labour is also due to publish the outline of legislation to set up GB Energy, a new state-owned energy investor based in Scotland that would invest in renewable energy and nuclear projects, a centrepiece of its green energy plans.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband vowed on Sunday to take “immediate action” to boost the role of solar power as part of a number of measures towards the government's target of achieving net zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2030.
“We will do everything we can to encourage builders and homeowners to bring this win-win technology to millions of addresses across the UK, enabling people to supply their own electricity, reduce their energy bills and play their part in tackling climate change at the same time,” Mr Miliband said.
On Friday, he approved three large-scale solar projects in England that Sunak's government had blocked, which it said would power enough electricity for 400,000 homes a year. One of the projects, Sannica, will create 1,500 construction jobs, according to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.
