Open Artificial Intelligence Service

Lord Brennan of Canton Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I am tempted to refer back to surveys I used to see when I worked in a global company, which always came out worse for the UK than anywhere else in the world. But this is a very real issue, and there are major concerns about some aspects of AI. My worry is that we do not concentrate enough on the benefits and articulate those. We have work to do to make it clear that this is going to benefit people and is not just something to worry about; it is going to be beneficial right across the sectors, including in health. We have work to do to get that message out and to ensure that it is understood and believed.

[Lord Brennan of Canton (Lab)]

The Minister is right that it will be beneficial, but what thought are the Government giving to developments in some of these businesses—for example, using AI to create digital clones of their employees, and the implications of that for employees’ moral rights over their own name, likeness, attributes and character? Have the Government given some thought to ensuring that human rights are also considered when AI policy is under consideration?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

The AI Security Institute was set up to look at the potential risk of new models. It works closely with model developers and gets access to models early, tests them for things that might be problematic, and is an important source of identifying possible issues. There are of course much broader questions, such as the one that has just been asked, which are beyond what happens inside government. That is why the work the Alan Turing Institute started, looking at some of those issues, is important. I am very pleased that many of the people who led that are now being established in academic positions and will continue to address these very important questions as we go forward.