AI: “Nudify” Apps

Lord Archbishop of York Excerpts

Tuesday 13th February 2024 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

The reason the making is not banned is that the sharing is banned, and the reason we did that is that Law Commission—as set out very clearly in its document—made the argument that this was the most appropriate way to have a coherent and effective body of law preventing this deplorable misuse of technologies.

[The Archbishop of York]

My Lords, it would be very helpful if the Minister could explain. If I heard him correctly, he said that sharing has a six month ban but for malicious sharing it could be up to two years. Could he explain what non-malicious use would be?

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

There is a base offence in the law of sharing intimate images without consent or the reasonable belief of consent. That can extend to two years if the intent is to cause alarm, distress or humiliation, or if the purpose is to gain sexual gratification. Crucially, there is an offence of threatening to share these materials which also carries a two-year penalty.

Counter-Disinformation Unit: Israel and Palestine

Lord Archbishop of York Excerpts

Tuesday 24th October 2023 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

On 11 October, shortly after the commencement of hostilities, the Secretary of State for DSIT convened a meeting of social media platforms. These included Google, YouTube, Meta, X, Snap and TikTok. She made her expectation very clear that not only would illegal content be rapidly and urgently removed but authoritative content would be promoted to create more clarity around what is accurate content in this fast-moving and difficult situation. Those meetings are ongoing daily at official level and are accompanied by detailed correspondence on the acts of those platforms.

[The Archbishop of York]

My Lords, it is good to hear that the Government are engaging with the social media platforms on this incredibly serious issue. Twitter has most aptly been renamed X, but without irony: one goes into this area with great caution, as it is distressing and nasty. I am told that X is currently laying off people whose job it is to monitor and remove posts that contain disinformation. Given this, and given that we have made progress in looking at social media platforms, what are we doing to require them to do this other than simply engaging with them?

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

I absolutely agree with the most reverend Primate about the seriousness and horror of the situation. On requiring social media companies to act, the Online Safety Bill will become law in a matter of days; it places much more rigorous requirements on the social media companies to remove content which is illegal and is harmful to children and to have only content that is consistent with their published terms of service.

Artificial Intelligence

Lord Archbishop of York Excerpts

Monday 26th June 2023 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

The risks have indeed been well publicised and are broadly understood as to whether and when AI becomes more intelligent than humans. Opinions vary but the risk is there. Collectively and globally, we must take due account of the risks; if not, I am afraid that the scenario that the noble Lord paints will become reality. That is why bilateral and multilateral engagements globally are so important, so as to have a single interoperable regulatory and safety regime, and to have AI that the world can trust to produce some of the extraordinary benefits of which it would be capable.

[The Archbishop of York]

My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries, for raising this issue. I too believe that the best way for us to find the potential of AI is by paying great attention to regulation and ethics, building on what has just been said. What is best in us is beyond rationality—

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends”


is not a rational decision. I have a simple question about the autumn summit, which I welcome. Because of the smorgasbord of ethical issues that AI raises, I am slightly concerned—although I may have got this wrong—that the summit will be gathering together business leaders. What about people from civil society? Will they be invited to the summit, and has this been given real consideration in helping us build an ethical framework for regulation?

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

The most reverend Primate is right to argue that we need a broad field of contributors to the difficult questions around AI ethics. As to the specific attendees and agenda of the AI global summit this autumn, those are to be determined, but we will have, if I may use the phrase, a broad church.