Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of how the safety measures in the Online Safety Act 2023 apply to conversational interactions between users and artificial intelligence chatbots where an online search has not been conducted.

AI chatbots that allow users to share content with one another are regulated by the Online Safety Act. This is in addition to chatbots which search live websites to provide results. Over 100,000 services are in scope of the Act including many services with chatbots.

These services must protect users from illegal content, and they must protect children from harmful and age-inappropriate content. The Government has been clear that we will act to address new and emerging AI harms. For example, government is tackling the disgusting harm of Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse with a new offence to criminalise AI models which have been optimised for this purpose. The Secretary of State has also commissioned the department to see what gaps there are if any, in coverage of the Online Safety Act.