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UK Technology Policy

How the UK parliament, Whitehall departments and their arms-length bodies govern digital technology and computing industries.

Current stories

productConfirmed2 publishers

Two of four frontier AI labs tell UK MPs they want binding rules

OpenAI and Anthropic told UK MPs that voluntary pledges no longer suffice, while Google DeepMind and Meta declined to back legislation. Teams building on these models now have vendors on the record disagreeing about whether they should be bound.

Publishers:dev.to wired.com

Reality

Evidence78
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap−5
Incentives
Not scored
Confidence75
investOne report1 publisher

Britain pitches AI standards as market access ahead of its 2027 G20 presidency

Andy Burnham used his first UN General Assembly address to claim the AI rulebook for Britain's 2027 G20 presidency, a pitch the UK's own digital standards strategy files under trade, market access and growth.

Reality

Evidence45
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+35
Incentives75
Confidence52
leadershipOne report1 publisher

Burnham skips compulsory AI testing pledge, unveils US-UK defence AI partnership

The leaders of Australia, Canada, Germany, the EU, Bahrain and Singapore have signed Finland's call for compulsory pre-release testing of frontier models. The UK has not, and its offer at the UN is a defence AI partnership with Washington.

Publishers:theguardian.com

Reality

Evidence58
Adoption25
Hype gap+30
Incentives70
Confidence55
leadershipOne report1 publisher

Two cabinet ministers set out different UK positions on AI risk on the same day

Louise Haigh will tell the TUC conference that ministers must heed the warnings of AI's own developers, while on the same day the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, said talk of a kill switch has little practical meaning.

Publishers:theguardian.com

Reality

Evidence56
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+36
Incentives74
Confidence54
leadershipOne report1 publisher

A UK committee lists automated worker discipline among the AI harms it wants a new law to reach

The joint committee on human rights wants legislation, a single regulator and transparency across the AI life cycle. Automated flagging of worker discipline sits on its list of threats, and the enforcement it describes is aimed at providers.

Publishers:theguardian.com

Reality

Evidence55
Adoption15
Hype gap+15
Incentives65
Confidence58
productOne report1 publisher

Human rights committee asks for a UK AI bill that grades systems by risk level

The Joint Committee on Human Rights says no country's rules on AI are fit for purpose, and it wants a statutory oversight body, tiered duties across the supply chain and some uses banned outright. It can only recommend.

Publishers:bbc.co.uk

Reality

Evidence64
Adoption
Not scored
Hype gap+18
Incentives55
Confidence60
leadershipOne report1 publisher

Bill to ban creation of artificial superintelligence tabled at Westminster

Alex Sobel's bill may go nowhere and its text is not public, yet the same week showed where a capability rule would attach, with Anthropic declining to send Mythos 5.1 to the UK's AI Security Institute before release.

Publishers:theguardian.com

Reality

Evidence58
Adoption15
Hype gap+32
Incentives66
Confidence47