Asked by: Lord Mott (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the risk of AI-generated misinformation in elections.
Answered by Viscount Camrose - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has in place established systems and processes, to protect the democratic integrity of the UK. We are working extensively across Government to ensure we are ready to rapidly respond to any threats to our democratic processes. The Government’s Defending Democracy Taskforce seeks to protect the democratic integrity of the UK from threats of foreign interference, by engaging across government and with Parliament, the UK’s intelligence community, the devolved administrations, local authorities, the Electoral Commission, the private sector, and civil society. The threat to democracy from AI was discussed at the AI Safety Summit in November 2023, reinforcing the Government’s commitment to international collaboration on this shared challenge.
The Government is working closely with social media platforms to ensure they are taking action to protect the integrity of the next election. Implementation of the Online Safety Act and the Foreign Interference Offence will make a significant difference here. For example, under the Online Safety Act, all companies subject to the safety duties will be required to take action against illegal content online, including misinformation and disinformation where it amounts to a criminal offence, and will be required to take steps to remove this content - including where it is produced by relevant AI bots - if they become aware of it on their services.