Lord Harper (Con)

My Lords, I thank my noble friend Lord Holmes for securing this debate, which has given us the opportunity, albeit briefly, to talk about this subject. I also thank the noble Baroness, Lady Alexander, for what I think was intended as a kind remark. I support a principles-based approach, which is not surprising since that was the approach set out by the Government of which I was a member. A number of principles should be adopted by existing regulators—I do not support having a single AI regulator—balanced against their existing duties on growth and innovation. This is important because, while there are absolutely risks with AI, it will be one of the biggest potential drivers of growth and innovation if we get it right. We need to balance those two things. I also want to focus on the thing that we are doing well—the AI Security Institute, which we set up and the current Government have retained. I was listening to Matt Clifford the other day, an apolitical official who is experienced in this sector. He was brought in by Rishi Sunak and retained by the present Prime Minister. He made the point that this is world leading, enabling us to robustly test AI models and approaches to make sure that we deal with the risks. It is very successful at enabling us to be a global leader. We are never going to be like the United States, the centre of all these things, but outside of the US and China we are a leading player in this area. I support a principles-based approach and a relatively short piece of legislation that would give the duty to existing regulators to adopt those principles. However, we need to move at pace and not do what happened with the Online Safety Act—still talking about the legislation in seven years’ time, when, frankly, the world will have moved on at pace.