Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment his Department has made of the potential for harm by small websites not included in the Online Harm Bill.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
All user-to-user services, no matter their size and regardless of whether they are categorised, will be captured by the Online Safety Act. The illegal content duties will require all user-to-user services – including small but risky services - to risk assess for illegal content, reduce the risk that users encounter illegal content, and mitigate against their service being used to facilitate or commit certain offences. The child safety duties will apply to all services likely to be accessed by children. These services must use highly effective age assurance to protect children from the most harmful content.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to oblige generative AI developers to disclose detailed information on creative works used in AI training.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government published a consultation on Copyright and AI in December 2024.
This consultation seeks views on a number of issues relating to copyright and AI. It sets a clear objective of achieving proportionate transparency from AI developers over the creative content that is used to train their models.
The consultation closes on 25 February.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of proposed AI data centres on UK (a) security and (b) defence.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government recognises the critical role of AI and data centre infrastructure in supporting the UK’s security and defence. AI Growth Zones will help develop domestic AI capabilities, ensuring the UK can harness AI to strengthen national security and defence capabilities. The UK must also have sufficient domestic data centre capacity to support our digital economy and ensure we are not overly reliant on international markets for storing and processing sensitive data.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what transparency obligations his Department plans to introduce on generative AI developers.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government published a consultation on Copyright and AI in December 2024.
This consultation seeks views on a number of issues relating to copyright and AI, including on how to achieve proportionate levels of transparency from AI developers over their training sources.
The success of any new approach to copyright and AI will depend on stronger trust between AI developers and rights holders. That is why transparency is one of the three primary objectives underpinning the Government’s approach to this work.
The consultation closes on 25 February.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that generative AI does not undermine creative industries.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government published a consultation on Copyright and AI in December 2024. It seeks views on how to create clarity in this area, to promote growth and investment in both the creative industries and AI sector.
Through this consultation, the Government aims to ensure that right holders in the creative industries can control and be remunerated for the use of their work, while supporting the development of world-leading AI models in the UK.
The Government recognises that this is a complex area and welcomes all views and evidence to help shape its thinking.
Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the incoming US presidency on scientific research in the UK.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The US is our biggest research partner. We expect this to continue. The UK’s thriving scientific ecosystem make us a natural and leading collaborator for the US research community. The UK and US have a deep scientific partnership which supports the UK's economic growth agenda. The Government looks forward to continuing to build on our strong existing bilateral commitments on research, which advance the frontiers of science, research and innovation to shape the technologies of the future.