back to article UK won't rush to regulate AI, says first-ever minister for digital brainboxes

The UK government will not rush to pass new laws that regulate AI, to avoid hampering innovation and potential financial growth, the minister for AI and intellectual property Jonathan Camrose said this week. In other words, Britain hopes to attract machine-learning talent and business by offering a relatively lax regulatory …

  1. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Congratulations, Viscount

    You got yourself a nice, cushy job of doing absolutely nothing.

    Must be mighty comfortable up there, eh ? I'm guessing you're already rich, so this is just more gravy to you.

    Well, if ever you should find yourself with a slight urge to actually work, don't forget to create a commission to analyze whatever itches you and bury it under a twenty-seven page report with their proposals on the last three pages. That way you can spend your tenure requiring rewriting and clarifications and you'll leave as you arrived : useless.

    1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

      Re: Congratulations, Viscount

      So that AI summit was a lot of hot air, in Sunak's fashion.

      But at least he was chatting with actual billionaire.

      1. monty75

        Re: Congratulations, Viscount

        > chatting with actual billionaire

        He can do that any time his missus has her folks round

    2. Lurko

      Re: Congratulations, Viscount

      I assume this bloke has a degree in something, but a good few minutes searching reveals nothing, and it's almost as though he wants to hide the facts of his education. Anybody else know?

      1. R Soul Silver badge

        Re: Congratulations, Viscount

        He's a delightfully good chap: an old Etonian who owns half of Herfordshire*.

        Us proles simply must learn our place and not ask unseemly questions of our lords and masters.

        My guess is Viscount Whatever is keeping quiet about his F in O-level woodwork because the rest of the government would be horrified to find out they had such an intellectual in their midst.

        * Or some other county "up north".

      2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: Congratulations, Viscount

        As far as I can make out his qualifications are that his family owned the Daily Telegraph for 60 years, his father was science correspondent there and wrote a book about AI several decades ago, he himself has been interested in AI & sci-fi since about age 5, he has an MBA from Carnegie-Mellon and was a management consultant. In terms of ministers responsible for science and technology over the years that seems to make him a high-flier.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Congratulations, Viscount

          I can only pity my colleagues in DSIT who will be having to deal with this grade A public school plonker.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Congratulations, Viscount

            They coped with Mad Nad. Anything after that can only be a bonus.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Congratulations, Viscount

              Only the ones who came across from DCMS.

              And you have to remember that when it comes to ministers and complete drooling idiocy, the current government have successfully proven there's nothing so bad it can't be made worse. There is apparently no such things absolute zero stupidity, it's just an infinite scale downwards.

  2. Dinanziame Silver badge

    Good luck regulating anything anyway

    It's going to take at least a decade before we figure out what can be regulated and how. Success will likely be partial, like the enforcement of copyright laws.

  3. elsergiovolador Silver badge

    Doublespeak

    The UK government will not rush to pass new laws that regulate AI, to avoid hampering innovation and potential financial growth of big corporations and give them time to establish themselves before they start anticipating brown envelopes before pulling the ladders so no smaller players could get in and grow.

    FTFY

    That being said, another reason might be that it is probably less than a year to the elections and by that time Con-servative party will be no more, so he could as well have said they can't be bothered.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Doublespeak

      "That being said, another reason might be that it is probably less than a year to the elections and by that time Con-servative party will be no more, so he could as well have said they can't be bothered."

      Of course they can be bothered. A lot of current legislation is about trying to make things difficult for the next government. Both main parties have form for doing this when they know they're going to lose the next election. Have a look at how they're trying to sell on the compulsorily purchased land for the bits of HS2 they've now cancelled. The reasoning is simple - to make it difficult and expensive for the next government should they wish to reinstate the northern legs of HS2.

      For clarity, I have thought from day 1 that HS2 was a misbegotten white elephant, on the other hand we're already on the hook for £100bn and for Sunak and his ghastly public school chums are doing this too late to save us any big money, but early enough to rob the modest benefits, whilst making life difficult (out of spite) for the next government. I'd be a core Conservative voter, but after fourteen years of wretched incompetence, stupidity, cowardice, dishonesty and betrayal, I am counting the days until they get slung out of office.

  4. cookieMonster Silver badge
    Mushroom

    This is so going to bite

    the UK in the ass in the not too distant future.

    Short term profit addiction will always come before the wellbeing of citizens, especially when the citizens are not US ones.

    Giving US companies a free hand is not going to end well for the UK public.

    1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

      Re: This is so going to bite

      There is nothing wrong with "profit addiction". It's what drives growth among other things.

      The problem is that corrupt UK government only allows big multinational tax avoiding corporation to have such addiction and then makes everyone else go cold turkey.

  5. monkey mouth

    So applying economic free market ideology to the legislation of tech then?

    This sounds much like the Tories economic approach and approach to governance in general:

    Government and laws which hamper business is bad mmmmmkay?

    We need to laws to control any dissenters though of course...

    ----

    I wonder if there's any tangible risk to allowing the unfettered development of AI systems? Many people have some rational caution here but not the UK...

    1. elsergiovolador Silver badge

      Re: So applying economic free market ideology to the legislation of tech then?

      They actually say:

      Government and laws which hamper (mates) business is bad mmmmmkay?

  6. codejunky Silver badge

    Hmm

    I am actually impressed. The usual government problem is to be seen to be doing something no matter how much harm that something is. Actually restraining themselves from rushing in half baked is fairly impressive.

  7. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Terminator

    A fine example of the'Yes Minister' disease

    Where not making a decision is regarded as a success.

    We are doomed I tell ye, doomed.

  8. Pete 2 Silver badge

    Regulate the future by looking at the past?

    > Scrambling to regulate AI would limit the technology, he argued.

    The sort of AI we have now is less than 10 years old. So to try and create an effective regulatory framework for the future, based on what is considered good / bad now, will make nailing jelly to the ceiling look like childs play

  9. Andy The Hat Silver badge

    Short term hands off ...

    actually means we allow as much data to be slurped as possible, get our LLMs all sorted out with as much personal data sold to "trusted third parties" as possible and only then regulate the use of personal data in LLMs by which time it's too late for our data and those "trusted third parties" are retired in Bermuda.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  10. Howard Sway Silver badge

    5th Viscount Camrose to give him his full title, is a member of the House of Lords

    Nothing demonstrates that your country is thrillingly modern and cutting edge like having an unelected hereditary aristocrat in charge of your AI strategy. Especially one whose lineage consists of former press baron owners of the Daily Telegraph.

    Oh well, I suppose he might be slightly preferable to having somebody who actually knew about this stuff in the role, as there's a much higher chance of nothing being achieved with him leading it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: 5th Viscount Camrose to give him his full title, is a member of the House of Lords

      I don't give a flying fuck at a rolling donut whether he is a hereditary aristocrat or a Martian in a bodysuit. He has more form than the rest of Parliament put together, and that is what matters.

      And he's feckin' right.

      You can't just dismiss some bugger because he's got more dosh than you and a fancy handle in Debrett's, it just makes you look a jealous little tit.

  11. Kane
    Megaphone

    UK won't rush to regulate AI

    So, why do we need a Minister for AI?

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: UK won't rush to regulate AI

      But if we didn't have a minister for AI some other minister might rush to regulate it and then where would we be? Instead we have a department that can evaluate the options and in fulness of time take the appropriate decision. Probably not to do anything because then you can't be blamed for the results of what you did do.

    2. quartzz

      Re: UK won't rush to regulate AI

      because the government doesn't know what it is, so having a minister for it allows them to pretend that they do

  12. quartzz

    when was the last time a politician had no idea what they were doing?

    apart form Boris. Nadine. Barclay. etc. of course

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just wait…

    Pretty soon the Daily Mail will link AI with kiddie nonces.

    Regulation will be quick and painful.

  14. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    The Problem Y’all and Your Systems are Creating which has No Possible Solution .....

    ..... is if/ when AI does neither care for, nor abide by any second or third party regulation of that which is far beyond and way out ahead of any matter and means of practical and physical, virtual or metaphysical command and control.

    It simply does as it wishes and as it sees as fit and proper ‽ . How would you propose to deal with that reality, should you even just image it being a possibility and therefore highly likely and a current event horizon rapidly approaching if not already some time ago arrived and presently in a phorm of NEUKlearer HyperRadioProACTive IT? Do you think you have anything effective anywhere?

    1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

      Re: The Problem Y’all and Your Systems are Creating which has No Possible Solution .....

      How would you propose to deal with that reality, ..... already some time ago arrived and presently in a phorm of NEUKlearer HyperRadioProACTive IT? Do you think you have anything effective anywhere? ...... amanfromMars 1

      All current evidence, either generally freely available or imagined to maybe exist secretly for secure elite party use and abuse, would definitively indicate there be absolutely nothing, and Earth and its systems and populations are indeed catastrophically vulnerable to exploitative forces and almighty otherworldly sources of an existential threat ..... or as the case can also be .... of an existential treat nature.

      What would you like for their preference to be ...... although that surely is the most idiotic of rhetorical questions with only the one correct answer available from/for anything exercising intelligence and expecting anything in the future to follow and enjoy ‽

      Try to imagine you have such a choice and that you might be listened to for your wishes to be granted. Anything else would be sad reflection on that which you be, don't you think?

  15. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    The Right Thing to Driver and Deliver All Future Peoples Needs with Current Feeds and Seeds

    Where IT and AI is all going wrong you all is like a case of one putting the apple cart in front of a dying of thirst horse and expecting the trojan beast not to feast on the fruits of a supernatural field rather than haul them to novel destinations and hungry markets with water and succour aplenty.

    And here be a prime example of that in a novel field of work for y'all to consider valid.

    A quick exploratory search for info and intel on specific matters of strange and surreal and unconventional emerging greater interest, and on the current research interests of present Turing AI Fellows as provided by this UKGBNI government website page ...... https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/turing-artificial-intelligence-fellowships/turing-artificial-intelligence-fellowships .... returned the following .....

    Professor Mirella Lapata ---- University of Edinburgh ---- Turing AI World-Leading Researcher Fellow ---- TEAMER – Teaching Machines To Reason Like Humans --- Reasoning, Modularity, Generalization, Language understanding and generation

    ...... which is surely a one way trip into the deep and dark hells of madness for machines should that research fully succeed and gain function.

    The much greater and more stable project to master and profit exponentially from is Teaching Humans to Reason Like SMARTR Advanced IntelAIgent Machines ..... which indeed may not be so easy but what the heck, is it not normally what aspirational and inspirational humans do .....

    We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too ..... John F. Kennedy, former President of the United States of America, September 12, 1962

    1. very angry man

      Re: The Right Thing to Driver and Deliver All Future Peoples Needs with Current Feeds and Seeds

      Just remember,

      Normal weapons have no effect on terminators,

      Shot guns at close range will stun them for a short time

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