Reports: UK could consider regulation amidst growing 'rogue AI' concerns

The UK could consider strict AI regulation amidst rising concerns over ‘rogue’ AI cybersecurity risks, according to reports.

So far, both the US and the UK have taken lighter approaches to AI regulation, but recent incidents involving OpenAI and Anthropic have sparked calls for tougher controls.

The UK's AI Minister Kanishka Narayan told Reuters that it would consider regulation to force testing before deployment if needed.

"If the right mechanism and lever changes in time and it feels like regulation might be a way that helps us do that, of course, we will look at it," Narayan told the publication.

Narayan said that the priority remained ensuring public safety rather than "obsessing only with the mechanism."

He added that it was "really, really unique" that the UK had access to frontier AI models before release, something it shared only with the US, which has existing provisions to test AI under military rules.

That comes via the UK's AI Security Institute, previously named the AI Safety Institute, which takes – so far, at least – a lighter approach to AI regulation than counterparts in the EU.

As ITPro reported on 3 August, aspects of the EU AI Act have now come into effect, requiring proactive testing of models and a concerted focus on model transparency.

The voluntary British model has been mimicked by Australia, via its own AI Safety Institute.

Data regulation

Owing to the amount of data used by AI, these systems are also covered in the UK by its data regulator, known as the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

That watchdog has said it is looking into OpenAI and Anthropic following the recent cybersecurity incidents. The two companies hit headlines in recent weeks after revealing agents escaped testing environments and hit third-party organizations.

"The ICO undertakes regular proactive supervisory engagement with ​AI developers, including OpenAI and Anthropic," the ICO said in a statement sent to Reuters. "We are aware of ‌recent ⁠hacking incidents affecting the sector and are monitoring developments closely."

But that shouldn't be taken as an indicator that the data watchdog is likely to crack down on AI.

Last month, the ICO said via a blog post that it wanted to support innovation in AI via a Statutory Regulatory Sandbox. This will act as an “experimentation regime to give innovators time-limited flexibility from parts of data protection law, so they can test ideas that might not otherwise be possible," the regulator said.

The watchdog noted that public trust was necessary to allow this and that any changes to data protection law would be necessary.

Rising concerns

AI-related safety concerns have been rising in recent months, particularly with the launch of powerful new cyber-focused models such as Anthropic’s Claude Mythos.

As ITPro reported in July, Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis called for a global framework to test frontier model safety, albeit one led by the United States.

Later today (4 August), leaders from Meta, Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google will meet with White House officials to discuss new safeguards, though reports suggest they will remain voluntary.

The aim is to convince companies to submit their technologies to security tests, following an executive order on national security grounds.

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