Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will work with AI companies to monitor AI chatbot searches for developing home-grown chemical and biological pathogens.

The Online Safety Act already regulates many generative AI services. Through a delegated power in the Crime and Policing Act, the Government will bring additional unregulated AI chatbots into scope, ensuring consistent protections against illegal content and activity, including terrorism offences. Government are working at pace on the detailed policy and technical work needed to deliver regulation, and to ensure it is effective and proportionate.

The Home Office also works closely with the UK AI Security Institute (AISI) to understand the risks posed by advanced AI. AISI have developed trusted, voluntary partnerships with the world’s leading AI labs. Through these relationships, AISI has secured privileged access to frontier models, testing leading AI systems before they are released and working collaboratively with companies to improve their safety and security. AISI maintains close engagement with government and industry, working alongside international partners to assess and mitigate the risks posed by increasingly capable AI systems, including chemical and biological.

The Home Office encourages industry to treat AI safety as an ongoing responsibility, and to monitor their systems throughout their lifecycle to identify risks and put proportionate mitigations in place.s