Artificial Intelligence: Global Governance

Lord Bishop of Leicester Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The noble Lord highlights the developments in frontier models, which are delivering unprecedented advances at present. We are ensuring that the UK has sovereign capability based on our strengths, so that we can compete in this new, developing technological area in areas where we contribute. For example, that is why we are backing the AI hardware plan, an area of real strength in the UK, and we have set up the sovereign AI fund to back those particular sectors which the UK is particularly strong in.

[The Lord Bishop of Leicester]

My Lords, a deepfake or AI-generated social media post manufactured in one country can inflame communities in another country within hours. Ahead of the UN global dialogue in Geneva next month, can the Minister give us a reassurance that the Government are pressing international partners for common standards on content provenance and authentication, so that citizens can tell what is real from what is synthetic and deliberately sown to divide communities?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The right reverend Prelate is right to highlight the importance of applying our values and laws, whether the content is generated by AI or by other actors. In the UK, the Online Safety Act takes that approach, whether content is developed by AI or elsewhere. It is through these kinds of dialogues, including with the UN, that we will share our best practice, so we can have standards globally that are based on the approach we are taking here in the UK.