The United Kingdom has an ambition to become the world’s leader in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and policy and AI is increasingly being adopted across a wide variety of sectors including financial services, healthcare and numerous others. In 2021 alone, £29.4 billion of investment flowed into UK tech, compared to £11.5 billion in 2020. The UK now has 1.64 million digital technology jobs and the combined value of UK tech companies founded since 2000 is now £540 billion. Against this exciting backdrop, we are delighted to have contributed to Global Legal Insights – AI, Machine Learning & Big Data’s Chapter on the United Kingdom for the third year in a row. The chapter provides an easy to read, focused update on the key regulatory and sectoral developments in AI in the UK.
In the chapter, we discuss the current state of AI in the UK, including the first statutory definition of AI, alongside the Government’s support and the current regulatory landscape before discussing AI in the context of specific sectors, such as intellectual property. Notably in this year’s edition, we have discussed the Government’s recently published National AI Strategy, which sets out how the Government will seek to utilise and implement AI over the next decade in both the public and private sectors. The Government have built the Strategy around 3 pillars centred on the key drivers of advances in AI, AI becoming mainstream and the need for regulatory/governance systems to adapt as AI develops. Under each pillar the Government has designated short, medium and long term actions which they are now working through. There have been other notable developments such as on intellectual property and AI, including the proposed new sui generis right for data. Reasons given for the new right include the new significance data has assumed as a critical component in AI and the encouragement of the development of new and beneficial classes of data (amongst others). The UK’s response to the WIPO consultation proposing the right was mixed, ultimately concluding that it didn’t advocate the creation of new data IP rights. A recent UK consultation on AI and IP did not mention the new right, suggesting that the proposal may not ultimately be taken forwards.
To read more on the above and other recent developments, please click here to read the chapter.
For the full publication, please click here.
Chapter first published in GLI - AI, Machine Learning & Big Data 2022.
Please also read our previous Law-Now articles:
America's gold standard on AI bias
Proposed ISO Standard on Risk Management of AI: What Businesses Should Know
Artificial Intelligence at Work and “people first” AI Regulation
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