The UK Government publishes its National AI Strategy

On 22 September 2021, the UK Government published its National AI Strategy, which aims to “make Britain a global AI superpower” (the Strategy). With this publication, the government seeks not only to promote innovative AI technology in the UK, but also to encourage its implementation by companies as the country recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The strategy includes three pillars:

1. Investing in the long-term needs of the AI ecosystem;

2. Ensuring AI benefits all sectors and regions; and

3. Governing AI effectively.

As well as providing an insight into the government’s current policy thinking in relation to AI, the Strategy therefore also sheds light on the possible approaches to the regulation of AI being considered in the UK.

Investing in the long-term needs of the AI ecosystem

The first pillar of the Strategy is designed to foster AI as an industry within the UK. By devoting resources and support, the Government hopes to ensure the country’s position at the pinnacle of technological research and development. Proposed initiatives to achieve this include:

1. Bolstering existing scholarship schemes and introducing new visa routes, such as the Global Talent route and a Global Business Mobility visa, to attract entrepreneurs and researchers to the UK from across the globe;

2. Educating industry as to the opportunities provided by AI;

3. A new National AI Research and Innovation programme to convert scientific discoveries into practical AI applications, thereby enhancing the UK’s AI capabilities; and

4. Widening access to funding through, for example, the Future Fund: Breakthrough, which encourages private investors to co-invest with the Government in innovative businesses with high-growth potential.

The Government also wants to stimulate trade in AI-related goods and services with its free trade agenda, while simultaneously harnessing the power of data through its parallel National Data Strategy.

Ensuring AI benefits all sectors and regions

The second pillar of the Strategy is intended to assist the UK in developing an AI-enabled economy, which will ensure that the benefits of AI technology affect all sectors and regions. The Strategy paper notes that greater commercialisation of AI projects and services is key to this objective, as it will result in the wider proliferation and availability of AI technology.
In line with this approach, the Strategy proposes the creation of a new IP structure to assist AI researchers and developers in the protection and enforcement of their valuable intellectual property. Providing companies and individuals with additional means to exploit their AI is likely to prompt new ownership disputes, which employers should consider going forward.

Governing AI effectively

The final pillar of the Strategy recognises the importance of effective governance in the UK’s mission to expand use of and innovation in AI technology. The proposed framework is intended to stimulate innovation in AI technology, whilst also ensuring its safe and ethical deployment.

As part of this potential overhaul of AI regulation, the Government has proposed greater coordination between existing domestic regulatory bodies so as to increase awareness of AI-related issues. Indeed, the Government has already made moves in this direction, with its founding of the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum in March of this year.

Proposals for further collaboration are not limited to the domestic sphere. The Strategy suggests that the UK must liaise with similarly minded nations to develop an international governance framework to influence national regulation of AI. This is designed to ensure the UK remains at the forefront of regulatory efforts and that British values are incorporated within international governance norms and standards. Consequently, market participants should monitor the international sphere closely, as developments there are likely to impact domestic regulation in the UK.

As well as advocating for regulatory cooperation, the Strategy considers three alternative solutions to the regulatory problems posed by AI. These include:

1. Removing regulatory burdens that undermine innovation. The Government has already made moves in this direction with its recent consultation “Data: A new direction” published on 10 September 2021, which included proposals to reform or remove Article 22 GDPR (the prohibition on fully automated decision-making);

2. Retaining the existing sector-based approach, ensuring that individual regulators are empowered to work flexibly within their own remits to ensure AI delivers the right outcomes. The Strategy notes that regulators and industries are already starting to respond to the risks of AI, and to work with innovators in their sectors to guide on interpretation of existing regulations, and on what further regulatory responses are appropriate. Accordingly, empowering existing bodies to respond may be a quicker response to potential harms than agreeing to an AI regulatory regime that makes sense across all sectors; and

3. Introducing additional cross-sector principles or rules, specific to AI, to supplement the role of individual regulators to enable more consistency across existing regimes. These could include non-regulatory tools, such as industry-led technical standards, which are influenced by global best practice and may facilitate international interoperability.

The Strategy also sets out proposals to unify the UK’s current AI Assurance Framework in order to increase both public and private trust in the safety and fairness of AI products and services. This means AI systems are likely to be subject to increased auditing requirements, which both producers and users of the technology ought to bear in mind.

Regardless of whether the various regulatory proposals are adopted or whether there is simply a drive for coordination between regulators, it is apparent that an expansion of regulatory jurisdiction to accommodate the bespoke challenges of AI technology is imminent. Companies should therefore prepare for greater oversight of their AI systems and enhanced regulatory obligations in the near future.

The third pillar of the Strategy concludes with a detailed consideration of the long-term risks posed by the increasingly pervasive nature of AI, including automatically generated misinformation and ‘locked-in’ racial bias. The Strategy makes it clear that in order to combat these risks the Government intends to utilise the recent National Security and Investment Act 2021. Amongst other powers, this grants the State the ability to intervene in acquisitions that could “harm the UK’s national security” and, if necessary, block them. Companies should therefore consider these new powers and account for the goals of the National AI Strategy when making strategic business decisions.

The Government plans to publish a White Paper at the beginning of 2022 addressing the feasibility of the regulatory options highlighted above and broader proposals to mitigate the risks posed by AI. This White Paper is also likely to shed further light on whether the UK plans to align or diverge from the stringent approach to AI regulation proposed by the EU in its draft AI Regulation.

If you are interested in discussing the National AI Strategy further or any other legal issue relating to AI, please do not hesitate to contact one of the members of our AI Group.