Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour’s AI attack strategy comes unstuck

Lucy Powell (Credit: Getty images)

What’s wrong with the government’s AI strategy? Labour has been claiming today that it is ‘already out of date’, with shadow culture secretary Lucy Powell arguing that developers should be licensed by the government before they can work on advanced AI.

Powell has suggested that an arms-length body could run the licensing regime in the same way as medicines and the nuclear industry are governed. But when she pitched up on the World at One this afternoon, she didn’t sound fully up-to-date herself.

There needs to be more of a narrative from the opposition than just ‘we would do this better’

Sarah Montague asked quite reasonably why, if Labour was so worried about AI, the party hadn’t really been talking more about this before. She also asked whether the government was already doing what Powell was urging it to – Rishi Sunak is in Washington for talks with Joe Biden about precisely this topic, after all.

Isabel Hardman
Written by
Isabel Hardman
Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.

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