AI: Cross-sector Legislation

Lord Clement-Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 29th April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I am sure that the noble Lord is aware that the creative industries are some of the greatest users of AI. Of course, it is important that creativity is protected. That is why a consultation has been put out around the copyright issue, which has been discussed many times in this Chamber. In all walks of life, it is important that we understand what AI brings and where it must be controlled in order to allow other things to happen. That is true not only in the creative industries but in many other areas.

[Lord Clement-Jones (LD)]

My Lords, the Government failed to sign up to the declaration signed by 60 other countries at the recent Paris AI Action Summit. How much confidence can that now give us that any new AI Bill will prioritise a requirement for AI, in the words of the declaration, to be

“open, inclusive, transparent, ethical, safe, secure … trustworthy”

and sustainable? Given that the Government did sign up to the Seoul communiqué last year and hosted the Bletchley Park summit, are they now going backwards in this respect?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I can assure the noble Lord that the Government are most certainly not going backwards in this respect. I can also assure him that the AI Security Institute which has been set up has driven much of this across the world. It is linked to similar units elsewhere; it is undertaking work on many models that are evolving; and it is making its own work open, including the approach it takes. There is a very robust system being developed to make sure that the UK is at the forefront of this, not in the following stream.