Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether he plans to take steps through a regulatory framework for artificial intelligence to (a) mandate safety-by-design principles, (b) mitigate potential harms and (c) prevent AI-generated child sexual abuse material.

As set out in the AI Opportunities Action Plan, we believe most AI systems should be regulated at the point of use, with our expert regulators best placed to do so. Departments are working proactively with regulators to provide clear strategic direction and support them on their AI capability needs.

On Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) specifically, creating, possessing, or distributing AI-generated CSAM is illegal, and the Online Safety Act requires services to identify and remove it. We are also taking further action in the Crime and Policing Bill to criminalise AI models which have been optimised to create CSAM.