A Pro Innovation Approach to Ai Regulation Amended Print Ready · Page 8

A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation 
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expertise graduating through our universities, the ingenuity of our innovators and the government’s 
long-term commitment to invest in AI.  
To ensure we become an AI superpower, though, it is crucial that we do all we can to create the right 
environment to harness the benefits of AI and remain at the forefront of technological developments. 
That includes getting regulation right so that innovators can thrive and the risks posed by AI can be 
addressed.  
These risks could include anything from physical harm, an undermining of national security, as well as 
risks to mental health. The development and deployment of AI can also present ethical challenges 
which do not always have clear answers. Unless we act, household consumers, public services and 
businesses will not trust the technology and will be nervous about adopting it. Unless we build public 
trust, we will miss out on many of the benefits on offer.  
Indeed, the pace of change itself can be unsettling. Some fear a future in which AI replaces or 
displaces jobs, for example. Our white paper and our vision for a future AI-enabled country is one in 
which our ways of working are complemented by AI rather than disrupted by it. In the modern world, too 
much of our professional lives are taken up by monotonous tasks – inputting data, filling out paperwork, 
scanning through documents for one piece of information and so on. AI in the workplace has the 
potential to free us up from these tasks, allowing us to spend more time doing the things we trained for 
– teachers with more time to teach, clinicians with more time to spend with patients, police officers with 
more time on the beat rather than behind a desk – the list goes on.  
Indeed, since AI is already in our day-to-day lives, there are numerous examples that can help to 
illustrate the real, tangible benefits that AI can bring once any risks are mitigated. Streaming services 
already use advanced AI to recommend TV shows and films to us. Our satnav uses AI to plot the 
fastest routes for our journeys, or helps us avoid traffic by intelligently predicting where congestion will 
be on our journey. And of course, almost all of us carry a smartphone in our pockets that uses 
advanced AI in all sorts of ways. These common devices all carried risks at one time or another, but 
today they benefit us enormously.  
That is why our white paper details how we intend to support innovation while providing a framework to 
ensure risks are identified and addressed. However, a heavy-handed and rigid approach can stifle 
innovation and slow AI adoption. That is why we set out a proportionate and pro-innovation regulatory 
framework. Rather than target specific technologies, it focuses on the context in which AI is deployed. 
This enables us to take a balanced approach to weighing up the benefits versus the potential risks. 
We recognise that particular AI technologies, foundation models for example, can be applied in many 
different ways and this means the risks can vary hugely. For example, using a chatbot to produce a 
summary of a long article presents very different risks to using the same technology to provide medical 
advice. We understand the need to monitor these developments in partnership with innovators while 
also avoiding placing unnecessary regulatory burdens on those deploying AI. 
To ensure our regulatory framework is effective, we will leverage the expertise of our world class