Scores of UK parliamentarians join call to regulate most powerful AI systems
More than 100 UK parliamentarians are calling on the government to introduce binding regulations on the most powerful AI systems as concern grows that ministers are moving too slowly to create safeguards in the face of lobbying from the technology industry,A former AI minister and defence secretary are part of a cross-party group of Westminster MPs, peers and elected members of the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish legislatures demanding stricter controls on frontier systems, citing fears superintelligent AI “would compromise national and global security”,The push for tougher regulation is being coordinated by a nonprofit organisation called Control AI whose backers include the co-founder of Skype, Jaan Tallinn,It is calling on Keir Starmer to show independence from Donald Trump’s White House, which opposes the regulation of AI,One of the “godfathers” of the technology, Yoshua Bengio, recently said it was less regulated than a sandwich.
The campaigners include the Labour peer and former defence secretary Des Browne, who said superintelligent AI “would be the most perilous technological development since we gained the ability to wage nuclear war”,He said only international cooperation “can prevent a reckless race for advantage that could imperil us all”,The Conservative peer and former environment minister Zac Goldsmith said that “even while very significant and senior figures in AI are blowing the whistle, governments are miles behind the AI companies and are leaving them to pursue its development with virtually no regulation”,Britain hosted an AI safety summit at Bletchley Park in 2023, which concluded there was “potential for serious, even catastrophic, harm, either deliberate or unintentional” from the most advanced AI systems,It set up the AI Safety Institute, now called the AI Security Institute, which has become an internationally respected body.
Less emphasis, however, has been placed on the summit’s call to address risks through international cooperation,Goldsmith said the UK should “resume its global leadership on AI security by championing an international agreement to prohibit the development of superintelligence until we know what we are dealing with and how to contain it”,The calls for state intervention in the AI race come after one of Silicon Valley’s leading AI scientists told the Guardian humanity would have to decide by 2030 whether to take the “ultimate risk” of letting AI systems train themselves to become more powerful,Jared Kaplan, the co-founder and chief scientist at frontier AI company Anthropic, said: “We don’t really want it to be a Sputnik-like situation where the government suddenly wakes up and is like: Oh, wow, AI is a big deal,”Labour’s programme set out in July 2024 said it would legislate “to place requirements on those working to develop the most powerful artificial intelligence models”.
But no bill has been published and the government has faced White House pressure not to inhibit commercial AI development, mostly pioneered by US firms,A spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said: “AI is already regulated in the UK, with a range of existing rules already in place,We have been clear on the need to ensure the UK and its laws are ready for the challenges and opportunities AI will bring and that position has not changed,”The bishop of Oxford, Steven Croft, who is backing the Control AI campaign, called for an independent AI watchdog to scrutinise public sector use and for AI companies to be required to meet minimum testing standards before releasing new models,“There are all kinds of risks and the government doesn’t seem to have adopted a precautionary principle,” he said.
“At the moment there are significant risks: the mental health of children and adults, the environmental costs and other big risks in terms of the alignment of generalised AI and [the question of] what is good for humanity.The government seems to be moving away from regulation.”Sign up to TechScapeA weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our livesafter newsletter promotionThe UK’s first AI minister under Rishi Sunak, Jonathan Berry, said the time was coming when binding regulations should be applied to models that present existential risks.He said rules should be global and would create tripwires so if AI models reached a certain power their makers would have to show they had been tested, designed with off switches and were capable of being retrained.“International frontier AI safety has not gone on in leaps and bounds as we had hoped,” he said.
He cited recent cases of chatbots being involved in encouraging suicides, people using them as therapists and believing they are gods.“The risks, now, are very serious and we need to be constantly on our guard,” he said.The chief executive of Control AI, Andrea Miotti, criticised the current “timid approach” and said: “There has been a lot of lobbying from the UK and US.AI companies are lobbying governments in the UK and US to stall regulation arguing it is premature and would crush innovation.Some of these are the same companies who say AIs could destroy humanity.
”He said the speed with which AI technology was advancing meant mandatory standards could be needed in the next one or two years.“It’s quite urgent,” he said.
‘Urgent clarity’ sought over racial bias in UK police facial recognition technology
The UK’s data protection watchdog has asked the Home Office for “urgent clarity” over racial bias in police facial recognition technology before considering its next steps.The Home Office has admitted that the technology was “more likely to incorrectly include some demographic groups in its search results”, after testing by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) of its application within the police national database.The report revealed that the technology, which is intended to be used to catch serious offenders, is more likely to incorrectly match black and Asian people than their white counterparts.In a statement responding to the report, Emily Keaney, the deputy commissioner for the Information Commissioner’s Office, said the ICO had asked the Home Office “for urgent clarity on this matter” in order for the watchdog to “assess the situation and consider our next steps”.The next steps could include enforcement action, including issuing a legally binding order to stop using the technology or fines, as well as working with the Home Office and police to make improvements
New York Times sues AI startup for ‘illegal’ copying of millions of articles
The New York Times sued an embattled artificial intelligence startup on Friday, accusing the firm of illegally copying millions of articles. The newspaper alleged Perplexity AI had distributed and displayed journalists’ work without permission en masse.The Times said that Perplexity AI was also violating its trademarks under the Lanham Act, claiming the startup’s generative AI products create fabricated content, or “hallucinations”, and falsely attribute them to the newspaper by displaying them alongside its registered trademarks.The newspaper said that Perplexity’s business model relies on scraping and copying content, including paywalled material, to power its generative AI products. Other publishers have made similar allegations
I spent hours listening to Sabrina Carpenter this year. So why do I have a Spotify ‘listening age’ of 86?
Many users of the app were shocked, this week, by this addition to the Spotify Wrapped roundup – especially twentysomethings who were judged to be 100“Age is just a number. So don’t take this personally.” Those words were the first inkling I had that I was about to receive some very bad news.I woke up on Wednesday with a mild hangover after celebrating my 44th birthday. Unfortunately for me, this was the day Spotify released “Spotify Wrapped”, its analysis of (in my case) the 4,863 minutes I had spent listening to music on its platform over the past year
Elon Musk’s X fined €120m by EU in first clash under new digital laws
Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, has been fined €120m (£105m) after it was found in breach of new EU digital laws, in a ruling likely to put the European Commission on a collision course with the US billionaire and potentially Donald Trump.The breaches, under consideration for two years, included what the EU said was a “deceptive” blue tick verification badge given to users and the lack of transparency of the platform’s advertising.The commission rules require tech companies to provide a public list of advertisers to ensure the company’s structures guard against illegal scams, fake advertisements and coordinated campaigns in the context of political elections.In a third breach, the EU also concluded that X had failed to provide the required access to public data available to researchers, who typically keep tabs on contentious issues such as political content.The ruling by the European Commission brings to a close part of an investigation that started two years ago
Home Office admits facial recognition tech issue with black and Asian subjects
Ministers are facing calls for stronger safeguards on the use of facial recognition technology after the Home Office admitted it is more likely to incorrectly identify black and Asian people than their white counterparts on some settings.Following the latest testing conducted by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) of the technology’s application within the police national database, the Home Office said it was “more likely to incorrectly include some demographic groups in its search results”.Police and crime commissioners said publication of the NPL’s finding “sheds light on a concerning inbuilt bias” and urged caution over plans for a national expansion.The findings were released on Thursday, hours after Sarah Jones, the policing minister, had described the technology as the “biggest breakthrough since DNA matching”.Facial recognition technology scans people’s faces and then cross-references the images against watchlists of known or wanted criminals
Tesla launches cheaper version of Model 3 in Europe amid Musk sales backlash
Tesla has launched the lower-priced version of its Model 3 car in Europe in a push to revive sales after a backlash against Elon Musk’s work with Donald Trump and weakening demand for electric vehicles.Musk, the electric car maker’s chief executive, has argued that the cheaper option, launched in the US in October, will reinvigorate demand by appealing to a wider range of buyers.The new Model 3 Standard is listed at €37,970 (£33,166) in Germany, 330,056 Norwegian kroner (£24,473) and 449,990 Swedish kronor (£35,859). The move follows the launch of a lower-priced Model Y SUV, Tesla’s bestselling model, in Europe and the US.The cheaper Model 3 and Model Y cars drop some premium finishes and features of the more expensive versions, but still offer driving ranges above 300 miles (480km)
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