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 ensure that AI models are developed with safeguards to prevent their use in generating child sexual abuse material.

The Government recognises the importance of tackling AI-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Creating, possessing, or distributing CSAM, including AI Generated CSAM, is illegal. The Online Safety Act requires services to proactively identify and remove this content. We are taking further action in the Crime and Policing Bill to criminalise CSAM image generators.

As set out in the AI Opportunities Action Plan, we believe most AI systems should be regulated at the point of use, with our expert regulators best placed to do so. Departments are working proactively with regulators to provide clear strategic direction and support them on their AI capability needs.