Open Artificial Intelligence Service

Debate between Lord Vallance of Balham and Lord Brennan of Canton

Wednesday 3rd September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I am tempted to refer back to surveys I used to see when I worked in a global company, which always came out worse for the UK than anywhere else in the world. But this is a very real issue, and there are major concerns about some aspects of AI. My worry is that we do not concentrate enough on the benefits and articulate those. We have work to do to make it clear that this is going to benefit people and is not just something to worry about; it is going to be beneficial right across the sectors, including in health. We have work to do to get that message out and to ensure that it is understood and believed.

[Lord Brennan of Canton (Lab)]

The Minister is right that it will be beneficial, but what thought are the Government giving to developments in some of these businesses—for example, using AI to create digital clones of their employees, and the implications of that for employees’ moral rights over their own name, likeness, attributes and character? Have the Government given some thought to ensuring that human rights are also considered when AI policy is under consideration?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

The AI Security Institute was set up to look at the potential risk of new models. It works closely with model developers and gets access to models early, tests them for things that might be problematic, and is an important source of identifying possible issues. There are of course much broader questions, such as the one that has just been asked, which are beyond what happens inside government. That is why the work the Alan Turing Institute started, looking at some of those issues, is important. I am very pleased that many of the people who led that are now being established in academic positions and will continue to address these very important questions as we go forward.

Artificial Intelligence: Public Services

Debate between Lord Vallance of Balham and Lord Brennan of Canton

Tuesday 6th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

As the noble Viscount, Lord Camrose, rightly suggests, between 4% and 7% of public sector spend could be reduced with a mix of digitalisation and AI. Both those things become important; it is not all AI, a lot of it is digital change. I have indicated the exemplars that are being piloted at the moment, both at a cross-government level and the ones being led out of DSIT as part of the incubator for AI. These are being assessed and evaluated. For example, programmes that look at the responses—sometimes tens of thousands—to consultations are being evaluated not only for the answers they give but for the time that might be saved by using them. So a series of metrics will be developed to understand the impact of these measures.

[Lord Brennan of Canton (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government are to be congratulated on seizing the opportunity that AI presents to improve our public services; it is a great example of how it can be a great servant to humanity. Is the Minister aware, though, of concerns in the creative industries about it becoming a master rather than a servant of human activity? What measures are the Government taking to ensure that those concerns are met?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

Like almost every technology that has been introduced, this can do good and harm. The noble Lord is quite right to raise the question of where it is going to cause more harm and, indeed, where it does something that is not in the interest of the community. That is something that is being looked at; it is one of the reasons that the AI Security Institute was set up—to try to understand what these models will do and where we need to have particular concern for risks. He is also right that one of the aims that should be there for any AI is to free up time for humans to do the things that only humans can do. It is a very important principle, whether for application in the NHS or across the public sector.