Regulate to innovate – report launch event

The launch event for the Ada Lovelace Institute’s new report: Regulate to innovate. 

The report highlights how regulation is an indispensable tool, alongside robust industry codes of practice and judicious public-funding and procurement decisions, to help navigate the narrow path between the risks and harms these technologies present.

The UK Government has big ambitions for AI, with the recently published National AI Strategy setting out the goal of growing the UK into an ‘AI superpower’.  

But there remains a significant gap in the Government’s plans for an economy and society powered and enhanced by AI: the development of a clear approach to regulation. 

Despite the positive potential of AI, and its applications across multiple industries – from healthcare and transport to finance and retail – the technology also presents significant risks and challenges. Across the world, AI systems are already being used in high-stakes settings such as recruitment, the assessment of eligibility for benefits and the granting of parole, presenting unresolved questions concerning agency, accountability and bias.   

In recognition of these challenges, other parts of the world have already started to draft legislation towards the regulation of AI. 2021 has seen the European Commission release a draft proposal for the regulation of AI, the Cyberspace Administration of China pass a set of draft regulations for algorithmic systems and the US Congress introduce several pieces of federal AI governance and data-protection legislation, such as the Information Transparency and Personal Data Control Act. 

Watch back the event:

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Drawing from the Ada Lovelace Institute’s recently published report, Regulate to innovate, we bring together experts to discuss: 

• What are the choices facing the UK Government when it comes to regulating AI? 
• What is the significance of robust AI regulation for the UK’s AI industry? 
• What are the different means by which regulators and government might overcome the many challenges associated with regulating a complex, opaque and general-purpose technology like AI?