Asked by: Baroness Coussins (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they are holding with foreign language professionals and their representative bodies about the regulation of machine translation in the context of developing AI policy.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
We recognise that the vast majority of AI systems - including machine translation - are best regulated at the point of use and in the context in which they are deployed. That’s why in response to the AI Action Plan, the government has committed to supporting regulators in evaluating their AI capabilities and understanding how these can be strengthened.
In regard to foreign language professionals, the GCHQ-chaired cross-Government Languages Group brings together government language professionals, developers and commissioning officers who have a stake in machine translation capability, to capture use cases and develop best practice for its development and deployment.
Asked by: Baroness Coussins (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether their sector-specific approach to developing regulation on artificial intelligence will include consideration of the challenges of machine translation, which cuts across all sectors.
Answered by Lord Vallance of Balham - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Whilst it is true that machine translation has applications across many sectors, the risks posed by machine translation will be driven by the context of where, how and why it is used.
Under our context specific approach, we recognise that our existing expert regulators are best placed to apply rules to the use of AI – including machine translation - in the contexts they know better than anyone else.
We are also committed to ensuring that regulators have the right expertise and resources to make proportionate and informed regulatory decisions about AI in their sectors.