Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether the AI Safety Institute plans to carry out testing on the societal impacts of AI on elections.

The AI Safety Institute has responsibility for developing and conducting evaluations on advanced AI systems, including assessing potentially harmful capabilities. As part of this, it will evaluate the direct impact of advanced AI systems on individuals and society - including how people are affected by interacting with these systems and the ways AI systems are being used in both private and professional contexts. Part of this work will explore the impacts of frontier AI on democracy, including elections. The Institute is collaborating on this with key partners in the UK ecosystem – initially with the Alan Turing Institute.

The Government takes the integrity and security of our democratic processes very seriously and is working to ensure we are ready to respond to the full range of threats to our democratic processes, including through the Defending Democracy Taskforce.