UK MPs and peers call for new AI bill to address human rights risks

A cross-party group of MPs and peers has identified human rights risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI) which existing laws, they argue, are ill-equipped to cover.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) published a report calling for a new bill on AI to "address the scale and seriousness" of such threats.

"Nowhere in the world, including the UK, has a current legislative and regulatory approach to AI that is fit for purpose," said Alex Sobel MP, the committee's chair.

On Saturday, the head of the US AI company Anthropic, Dario Amodei, proposed a plan that includes global regulation, industry-wide regulation and independent monitoring of AI models as they are developed.

Amodei urged the pace of development to be slowed down and the bosses of two rival AI firms, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Elon Musk, said they agreed with him.

One human rights concern raised in recent years is that AI can display biases against particular groups if trained on large datasets scraped from the internet which can include racist, sexist and other undesirable material.

AI could also be used to create and spread misinformation.

In a summary of its 100-page report, external, the JCHR points out that AI has been responsible for numerous abuses of human rights.

It cites as examples the use of AI to create sexualised images of women and girls and scanning people's faces without their consent.

The JCHR advocates the creation of a "single, independent AI oversight body... on a statutory basis".

It argues that the current legal framework which applies to AI is "fragmented and difficult to navigate", "leaving gaps in protection".

"The AI Bill should establish a regulatory regime that classifies different risk levels and mandate more demanding obligations for higher risk AI systems and models," it says.

"Obligations should be placed on all stages of the AI lifecycle, ensuring those responsible in the supply chain for designing, amending and utilising AI systems are aware of their obligations and they are effectively addressed.

"Some uses of AI should be prohibited outright because they are incompatible with human rights. Potential areas for action include subliminal techniques, and inappropriate use of profiling or biometric data."

"AI is heralded as an unprecedented era of technological development with the potential to transform our lives for better or for worse," said Sobel.

"It is moving with such speed and complexity that its impact is hard to accurately predict. What is clear is that at present we are unprepared to deal with its consequences however potentially dire they may be."

The JCHR's 12 members are drawn from both Houses of Parliament and they currently include MPs and peers from the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties.

BBC News is seeking comment from the government on the call for the AI bill.

Monday's report comes amid growing general anxiety over the challenges AI poses.

Jacob Coxon, an AI researcher who quit Anthropic, told the BBC this weekend that staff developing the systems were "genuinely frightened" for the future of humanity.

An Anthropic spokesperson told BBC News that it was building "models with some of the strongest safeguards in the industry".