UK Labour Party's Manifesto Introduces Regulation of AI
Summary
In advance of the general elections in the UK on July 4, 2024, the UK’s Labour Party addressed their plans for AI regulation in their manifesto on June 13, 2024. The party, which won the elections in a landslide victory, plans to introduce a new Regulatory Innovation Office, which will bring together existing government functions. Labour also plans to introduce binding regulation for a “handful of companies developing the most powerful AI models,” though it is not confirmed which companies will fall into this group.
Labour has also stated, however, that they plan to support innovative businesses. The current UK Conservative government’s policy in relation to AI has so far been to keep regulation to a minimum and to empower existing regulators to monitor AI within their respective sectors, although more recently the government had announced that it may introduce “future targeted binding requirements for the most advanced general-purpose AI systems.” Although no mention of AI regulation is mentioned in the Conservative manifesto for the general election.
