The Lord Bishop of Oxford

My Lords, it is always a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Kidron. I look forward to the maiden speeches to come. In the words of the King’s Speech, “an increasingly dangerous and volatile world threatens the United Kingdom”. The Government will respond “with strength” and in line with “the British values of decency, tolerance and respect”. Not all threats are visible, though all need an intentional response. The potential of artificial intelligence is clear, but there is rising public concern about the risks and dangers, both present and future. There is concern about employment and jobs being displaced by technology—which is already registering in statistics—and in the aspirations of the young. There is concern about the toxic effects of social media on public discourse. Nearly 1 million children are in the mental health system and, according to a report by Smartphone Free Childhood, youth worklessness has doubled over the last 10 years. There is concern about public truth, abuse perpetrated through and by chatbots, and increasing violence against women and girls. There is concern about the proliferation of AI in warfare, and there is growing concern about the international competition to develop general AI and the lack of guardrails for technology companies. There are some things on technology in the King’s Speech to welcome, each of which will require careful scrutiny in this Chamber. However, for me, there is a massive hole in the centre of government policy in the area of online safety and security and the relationship between government and technology companies. The best interests of our citizens are simply not being served by a small number of global companies pledged to generate revenue and meet the demands of their shareholders. We are seeing, and will see, an increasing distortion of human dignity and value in the interests of profit. I look forward very much to Pope Leo’s forthcoming encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, which will be on AI, to be published on Monday, and to your Lordships’ House exploring these issues in more depth on 5 June in the debate on human-centred AI, sponsored by the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury. Where in the gracious Speech is the legislative vehicle to deliver the urgent changes needed to the online safety regime? Where is the strategic approach to AI safety? Where is the careful balancing of ethics with innovation? Where are the laws binding development on superintelligent AI? Will the Minister please comment? Finally, as the bishop of a diocese with over 280 schools, and which has two of our own MATs and is a partner in 22 further MATs, and on behalf of the Church of England, I welcome the proposed reforms of the special educational needs system. They align with the Church of England’s vision for education, centred on human dignity, belonging, inclusion and enabling every child to flourish, regardless of their needs or abilities. However, we need to pay much more attention to the ordering of the digital world our children will inhabit.