The Government held a roundtable with social companies including YouTube, Meta, X, TikTok and Snapchat on 11 October to discuss the ongoing conflict in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

During this meeting, companies were asked to follow-up in writing to confirm the steps they are taking to tackle extremely violent and antisemitic content. These companies have all since followed up in writing. The Government continues to engage directly with individual companies and will keep the current approach under review.

The UK government is taking a leading role promoting ethical, safe and responsible adoption of AI, as illustrated by our leadership of the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park last week. This includes the use of AI to improve public services and boost public sector productivity.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is looking to identify new uses for AI in the public sector. Examples include: the AI Life Sciences Accelerator Mission giving £100 million of funding to capitalise on AI’s game-changing potential in healthcare; the Department for Education providing up to £2million to Oak National Academy to improve and expand Artificial Intelligence tools for teachers; the Department of Health and Social Care using AI to identify language indicating mental distress in public social media posts and signposting people to a NHS-endorsed mental health service; and the Royal Navy using AI to connect with potential recruits faster through an AI-driven virtual recruiter.

Government is moving quickly to establish the right guardrails for AI to drive responsible, safe innovation. In March, we published the AI Regulation White Paper which set out our first steps towards establishing a regulatory framework for AI.

We will be publishing our response to the consultation later this year, to ensure we can take into account the outcomes of the productive discussions of the AI Safety Summit held at the beginning of November.

Since publishing the White Paper, we have taken rapid steps to implement our approach. We have established a central AI risk function in DSIT which will ensure that we can identify, measure and monitor existing and emerging AI risks. We also announced the world’s first AI Safety Institute which will carefully examine, test and evaluate new types of AI. This builds on our investment of £100 million in the Frontier AI Taskforce – more funding for AI safety than any other country in the world.

The summit will focus on risks created or significantly exacerbated by the most powerful AI systems, while considering how safe AI can be used for public good and to improve people’s lives. The UK looks forward to welcoming representatives from civil society as well as leading AI nations, technology companies and researchers to Bletchley Park. Together we will turbocharge global action on the safe and responsible development of frontier AI to ensure nations and citizens globally can realise its benefits.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

Given the proximity of the Safety Summit to the European AI, Data and Robotics Forum on 8 and 9 of November, the Government will not be sending any Ministers or officials to the event. However, both UK Government Ministers and officials participate in European technology-focused events, with an SCS-led official delegation attending the IAPP (International Association of Privacy Professionals) Europe Data Protection Conference this November, which will seek to facilitate our EU data objectives.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

The UK believes that the global risks posed by frontier AI are increasingly urgent, including risks to online safety. That is why the summit programme, published October 16, includes a roundtable discussion on risks from the integration of frontier AI into society.

This issue is also being considered through wider government action. Under the Online Safety Bill, AI-generated content shared by users on social media will be regulated to limit the spread of illegal materials including child sexual abuse.

Age verification technologies are well developed and already in use across a range of sectors, including financial services and the online sales of age restricted goods. Age estimation technologies are developing rapidly and there are a growing number of privacy-preserving tools being developed that will ensure that platforms know the age of their users and can provide a safe and age-appropriate experience for children.

Ofcom will set out in its guidance examples of the kinds of age verification and age estimation measures that can be used to meet the duties set out in the Bill – this includes setting out the kinds of technologies that are highly effective in determining whether a particular user is a child for the purpose of protecting children from pornography and other primary priority content that is harmful to children.

The Digital Economy Council (DEC) last met on the 18th of January 2023. This meeting addressed the department’s priorities for 2023 and sought feedback from members on the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Bill. Discussions were also held on the Patrick Vallance Regulatory Review. The DEC was also an important contributor to my department’s efforts to help facilitate HSBC’s purchase of Silicon Valley Bank UK earlier this year.

This department recognises the importance and value of engaging with the tech sector via the Digital Economy Council and other complementary fora. The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology also met with the Council for Science and Technology in March 2023; and I continue to co-chair the Digital Skills Council, working closely with industry.

The UK Semiconductor Infrastructure Initiative feasibility study is being conducted by a consortium of industry and academic partners led by the Institute for Manufacturing at Cambridge University and will provide recommendations on how to improve access to R&D infrastructure to boost innovation and growth in the UK semiconductor sector.

The study has consulted extensively across the sector and workshops have been held in all four nations of the UK to determine a holistic picture of the UK’s capabilities and the needs of industry.

The National Semiconductor Strategy sets out the government’s plan to build on the UK’s strengths to grow our sector, increase our resilience and protect our security.

We will announce plans by the autumn to further support the competitiveness of the semiconductor manufacturing sector that is critical to the UK tech ecosystem or our national security.

We have engaged extensively with industry including with the new Semiconductor Advisory Panel to inform our approach.

To ensure the AI Safety Summit can achieve its objectives, it is necessary to have a small but international discussion at the event. This will limit the participants to around 100, including world leaders and companies at the cutting edge of frontier AI. The UK has actively considered national security in decision making to ensure that the partnerships and invitees are aligned with our National Security interests. Further information about invitees will be made available in due course.

The UK Summit will focus on frontier AI risks, which includes risks from frontier AI models to biosecurity (and within that, genomics), which are increasingly urgent to address at an international level. The Government is also undertaking a full programme of work to assess how we can minimise the risks from biological data and protect our burgeoning bioeconomy.

The Department currently has 14 researchers as part of the Frontier AI Taskforce but intends increase that number. The Frontier AI Taskforce was launched by the Prime Minister in June to build an AI research team inside government that can evaluate risk at the frontier of AI.

The Government does not comment on specific details of national security assessments. The Summit will aim to develop a forward process on how to support national and international frameworks on AI safety which include emerging issues such as biosecurity and cybersecurity, including from the potential misuse of models by non-state actors.

The Online Safety Bill has now finished its parliamentary passage and will receive Royal Assent in the coming weeks.

The Bill will ensure that technology companies take more responsibility for the safety of their users, particularly children. It has been designed to be tech-neutral to keep pace with emerging technology. The Bill will tackle harmful AI generated content on user-to-user services when that content is placed on the service by a user, or if an AI bot is itself placed on a service by a user and interacts with other users.

In addition, the forthcoming AI Safety Summit and the work of the Foundation Model Taskforce will focus on risks created or significantly exacerbated by the most powerful AI systems, especially where they pose a threat to the most vulnerable in our society, such as children. It will draw on a range of perspectives both prior to and at the event itself to inform these discussions.

The Department attaches great importance to the timely processing of all correspondence. Making the most of the opportunities presented by the formation of a new department, the new team is working to maximise efficiency and innovation. Performance is regularly reviewed to ensure response times and backlogs are being actively managed. We apologise for the exceptional delay in replying to this case and will respond as a matter of urgency

On 2 October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a value for money audit of all EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) spending in the Civil Service. The audit will dovetail with the public sector productivity review, aiming at delivering a leaner, more efficient government. The audit forms part of our drive to improve productivity across the public sector by driving down waste and improving performance. The findings and actions of the audit will be announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn.

On 2 October, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a value for money audit of all EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) spending in the Civil Service.

The audit will dovetail with the public sector productivity review, aiming at delivering a leaner, more efficient government. The audit forms part of our drive to improve productivity across the public sector by driving down waste and improving performance.

The findings and actions of the audit will be announced by the Chancellor in the Autumn.