Guy took part in a debate on 4th June, introduced by Conservative Peer Lord Holmes of Richmond, about the regulation of Artificial Intelligence.
He called for urgent action to regulate AI - and said that at the moment there was "political paralysis" on the issue.
He said that "the vast, unaccountable technology companies would have us believe that any attempt at regulation in this area would stifle their growth and damage the economy. That is nonsense, of course. The truth is that legislation, even of the most modest sort, is long overdue to protect public safety, ensure transparency, tame untrammelled market power and protect content and intellectual property."
He raised two specific issues.
"First, there is already legislation on the statute book that, as a starting point, simply needs to be enforced. Rather than trying to rip the guts out of the CMA [Competition and Markets Authority], the Government should actively direct it to encourage greater competition in digital markets. Google’s announcement yesterday [3rd June] that it will give publishers greater control over use of their work globally, after the CMA introduces binding conduct requirements on search, not only demonstrates that big tech will not flee if we introduce proportionate regulation but shows that the UK has an opportunity to lead the way.
"Secondly, the Government should act now to ensure that existing copyright law is meaningfully enforced. For news publishers, indeed all content publishers, whose content is routinely scraped—or stolen—without consent or remuneration, simple transparency over the identity and purpose of the “crawlers” accessing that content would provide the basic information required to assert their rights and be rewarded for them. It is not a radical demand and falls well short of proper regulation, but it would be a start as a practical measure to make existing law effective. Yet even this has been kicked into the long grass, despite consistent demands from this House for action."
He finished with a stark warning: "We should not accept political paralysis on this vital issue. AI can be a great force for good but, to serve all of society, laws must be enforced and fresh regulation put in place at speed. Unless we act now, history will taunt us with its most feared words: “too late”."
The full text of the debate, including the reply from the Minister, is here.
ENDS.
