Data Policy Digest

Gavin Freeguard

Gavin Freeguard

Hello, and welcome to our sweet sixteenth Data Policy Digest, bringing you all the latest data and AI policy developments. From April showers to a May data deluge - with details of Lords committee stage for the Data Protection Bill, more AI developments than you can shake a large language model at and much more besides.

To help you navigate all that, you can now jump to your favourite section with our new contents page. (By which I mean, read that first, before you make your way through everything else. Right? RIGHT…?!)

If there’s something we’ve missed, something you’re up to that you’d like us to include next time or you have any thoughts on how useful the Digest is or could be, please get in touch via gavin@connectedbydata.org. We’re on Twitter @ConnectedByData and @DataReform. You can also catch up on previous Digests.

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Contents

Data policy developments

What we’ve been up to

What everyone else has been up to

Events

Good reads

Data policy developments

Deeply DPDIB

In the House As of 8.16pm last Wednesday, 24 April, the Bill has finished Lords Committee Stage after seven days of debate. It’s Lords Report Stage next - date tbc - when we can expect lots of amendments to return and to be voted upon (in this committee stage, only amendments agreed unanimously would be made, with no votes permitted).

We summarised the amendments raised in the first three days last time - here’s what’s happened since:

On the fourth day (15 April), amendments covered transfers of personal data to third countries… access to data for researchers (previously raised during the Online Safety Act and based on provisions in the EU)… national security exemptions (concerns they breach ECHR)… processing of data by the police for submission to the Crown Prosecution Service… the role, duties and objectives of the Information Commissioner… code of practice on EdTech… government amendments on transfers of personal data to third countries for the purposes of law enforcement; some third party country amendments with consequential and transitional provisions; and some technical amendments… government amendments accepted, all other amendments withdrawn.

On the fifth day (17 April), amendments covered complaints from data subjects (including the ability for organisations to bring complaints on behalf of subjects)… Digital Verification Services (and digital identity theft)… a ‘slightly disparate group’ including data on climate and energy, and risks to data adequacy… oversight of biometric data… some technical amendments from government, and on the relationship between UK- and EU-derived pieces of legislation… government amendments accepted, all other amendments withdrawn.

On the sixth day (22 April), amendments covered cookies… nuisance calls and spam texts… democratic engagement (use of data by political parties and others, specifically the soft opt-in)… power to require information for social security purposes (DWP powers)… government technical amendments… government amendments accepted, all other amendments withdrawn.

And on the seventh day (24 April), the Lords ended the work they had done, considering amendments on the power to require information for social security purposes (DWP powers)… registers of births and deaths (standardisation and a move to a single digital register) and expanding the Tell Us Once service to private companies… evidence from computer records (the ‘Mr Bates amendment’)… Information Commission (including appointments and functions)… AI-generated child sexual abuse material… deepfakes… risks to genomic data… while groups with government amendments covered the National Underground Asset Register… the Information Commission… power to make amendments… extent of the bill… a Camrose/Kidron amendment allowing coroners to require information from tech companies regardless of the cause of a child’s death (it had, controversially, been limited to suicide)… government amendments accepted, all other amendments withdrawn.

There’s also a ‘will write’ letter from Viscount Camrose, which covers various issues raised during earlier days of debate.

The debates are well worth reading (no, really) for the ‘vigorous—I think that is the right word—scrutiny’ (minister, Viscount Camrose) of the Bill, and to see just how bad the Bill is. To take just one example: on Wednesday, on DWP powers, Baroness Sherlock thought the minister was ‘saying that the Bill would allow the DWP to request information from any kind of organisation’, not just financial institutions currently specified, ‘including phone companies… By virtue of further regulations, could they extend that to anything—to Garmin, the people who monitor your runs, to gyms and to anyone else? Is that correct?’

The minister, Viscount Younger, confirmed this was indeed correct. He ‘hope[d] indeed that it provides some reassurance that extending it to the banks and financial institutions initially is deliberately designed to be narrow’ - it would be for future parliamentary debate to decide whether to use the power to designate further third parties. But we shouldn’t be concerned: he argued ‘this is not a surveillance power and suggesting that it is simply causes unnecessary worry’. So that’s ok, then.

A code of practice for those powers might also not be forthcoming before Lords Report stage. Lib Dem Lord Clement-Jones, noting it has already been ‘quite a marathon’, hoped ‘Report is not too early as there is a lot to sort out.’ As Viscount Camrose put it, ‘We have not necessarily agreed on a great deal’. ‘Understatement’ is one word that comes to mind. (There are others.)

Out of the House… DWP powers Big Brother Watch have been busy, commissioning legal advice from Matrix - GOVERNMENT’S NEW BANK SPYING POWERS “BREACH PRIVACY RIGHTS”, WARN LAWYERS - and with a thread (with video) on day six of the debate… there’s been coverage of the controversial clauses elsewhere, including DWP recruiting ‘covert surveillance officers’ to snoop on benefit claimants: ‘I fear for the future’ (Big Issue)… DWP plans to snoop on claimants’ bank accounts branded ‘Orwellian’ (Sunday Times)… Lords to challenge controversial DWP benefits bank account surveillance powers (Computer Weekly)… Parliament pushes DWP for info on impact of AI on benefit claims (Public Technology)… The government’s plans for unlimited surveillance on benefit claimants’ bank accounts should worry us all (Lord Sikka for Left Foot Forward)… Pensioners at risk of snooping by officials under Orwellian new law, warns David Davis (Daily Express)… DWP have mentioned the bill a few times as part of other benefit/fraud-related stories, as they review the disability benefits system and announced bringing benefit fraud perpetrators to justice… and it’s one of the parts of the Bill - along with automated decision-making provisions - concerning the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in their latest report (page 12, page 14)…

International and adequacy EUROPE WARNS OF THREAT TO ADEQUACY AGREEMENT (Open Rights Group)… Lords Set To Strengthen UK’s “Not Fit For Purpose” International Data Protections (PoliticsHome)… Peers seek new law to provide stronger protections for citizens’ data (Public Technology)… The “Adequacy” Test: Canada’s Privacy Protection Regime Passes, but the Exam Is Still On (CIGI)… in the US, Cantwell, McMorris Rodgers strike bipartisan deal on landmark data privacy bill (The Spokesman-Review)…

Researcher access to data Full Disclosure: Stress testing tech platforms’ ad repositories (Mozilla), summarised by Nieman Lab… Status Report: Mechanisms for Researcher Access to Online Platform Data (European Commission), summarised by Tech Policy Press… New data protection and privacy laws have changed the regulatory landscape for researchers in the Global North (LSE)…

Children and education Open Letter to Ministers: Drop the damaging UK Data Protection Bill (Defend Digital Me and others)… Government Urged to Drop Data Protection Reforms Which May Make Children an Easy Target (Byline Times)…** **A code of practice for EdTech: Digital Futures for Children briefing for Amendment 146 to the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill… AI is ‘creating models of child sexual abuse’ says Baroness Kidron (Channel 4 News)…

Democratic engagement Tories planned to make millions from members’ data with ‘True Blue’ app (The Guardian)… Political campaigning practices: online campaigning (ICO, updated in March)… Algorithmic transparency Increasing AI transparency: All public sector use of Artificial Intelligence to be registered (Scottish Government)… Scotland to introduce mandatory national register of public sector AI (Public Technology)… the UK government has updated its templates for reporting against its standard (DSIT)… Computer evidence Change the law on computer evidence with an amendment to data protection bill (letter to The Guardian)… Cookies, monstered In Europe, Commission’s data cookie pledge crumbles (EuroNews)… and Update on the plan for phase-out of third-party cookies on Chrome (Google)… And Ofcom and the ICO have a joint statement on the intersection of data protection and online safety …while Private Eye have started taking an interest.

Bills, bills, bills

As if that weren’t enough…

AI Bill? Is the UK government changing its mind on the need for legislation? The FT reports that UK rethinks AI legislation as alarm grows over potential risks, and Bloomberg that UK Starts Drafting AI Regulations for Most Powerful Models, though the government denies a change in approach.

It’s third reading next, on 10 May, for the actually existing AI BIll - Lord Holmes’ Private Members’ effort (they tend not to pass).

And… we were part of the TUC’s project to draft an AI (Employment and Regulation) Bill.

Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act One of the other digital bills under this government, which received Royal Assent back in December 2022. ‘New laws to protect consumers from cyber criminals come into force in the UK’ is DSIT’s press release from last week.

Online Safety Act Discussions of a possible ban on smartphones for children continue to generate headlines… GOVERNMENT CONSIDERING BAN ON MOBILE PHONE SALES TO UNDER 16-YEAR-OLDS (Guido Fawkes) - Politico reported earlier this month that a government aide says that won’t happen ‘although a discussion is ongoing about increasing parental empowerment on smartphone use’… UK Plans Talks With Big Tech to Limit Online Harm for Teens (Bloomberg)… Tory MP Miriam Cates, The three groups opposing the smartphone ban are all wrong (UnHerd)… UK could ban under-16s from social media in face-off with Meta (Sunday Times)… Jonathan Haidt, whose new book has sparked some of this, spoke at a Policy Exchange event and is also on BBC News’ HARDtalk soon…

Meanwhile… ENFORCING THE ONLINE SAFETY ACT FOR CHILDREN: Ambitions for the Children’s Safety Code of Practice (5Rights and others)… Ofcom tests accuracy of social platforms’ AI classification tools with ‘sensitive material’ (Public Technology)… A window into young children’s online worlds (Ofcom, and also New research on how UK adults navigate an increasingly online world)… Ofcom: Almost a quarter of kids aged 5-7 have smartphones (BBC)… ‘Let’s build a system to keep children safe online’ – Meet Almudena Lara, child protection policy lead (Ofcom)… Sunak’s next target is teens and smartphones (The Times)… Parents could be alerted when children access disturbing content on phone (The Times)… Sex offender banned from using AI tools in landmark UK case (The Guardian)… new Internet Watch Foundation annual report… ICO sets out priorities to protect children’s privacy online (ICO)… and DSIT has published a response to its consultation on Super-complaints: eligible entity criteria and procedural requirements under the Act.

Criminal Justice Bill This awaits a date for Commons report stage… Creating sexually explicit deepfakes to become a criminal offence (BBC)… a reminder that Labour has recently urged Rishi Sunak to close legal loophole on deepfake pornography (Independent) and called for a ban on nudification apps.

Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill The Bill is now in ping-pong, with the Commons first considering amendments from the Lords on 30 April. (On 22 April, there was a ‘carry over’ motion - this means the Bill can continue its parliamentary journey until December if need be.)

More broadly… in Opening remarks at the American Bar Association (ABA) Chair’s Showcase on AI Foundation Models, the chair of the CMA said the UK has real concerns about AI risks, says competition regulator (Guardian - see also Politico for subscribers)… AI Foundation Models: Update paper (CMA)… and ‘in AI, we have a disruptive technology that – perhaps for the first time in the history of innovation – is not disrupting the major incumbents who already hold strong market power in some of today’s most important markets, but instead could end up reinforcing their market power’…

And a story in three acts… Act One Microsoft-OpenAI deal set to dodge formal EU merger probe, sources say (Reuters)… Act Two Exclusive: Microsoft’s OpenAI partnership could face EU antitrust probe, sources say (Reuters)… Act Three CMA seeks views on AI partnerships and other arrangements (CMA)… Microsoft, Amazon AI Deals Get UK Antitrust Scrutiny (Bloomberg)…

And… UK in a Changing Europe’s latest ‘divergence tracker’ touches on the EU Digital Markets Act.

Investigatory Powers (Amendment) Bill This received Royal Assent on Thursday 25 April - it now becomes law. (Worth noting that a report from the Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee had disagreed with the government’s plan to use a negative resolution - becomes law unless a motion rejects it - instead of affirmative - must be actively approved by both Houses to come into effect - on information gathering powers.)

Other The Automated Vehicles BIll started Commons Report Stage on 1 May…

While in the US, The House TikTok bill just passed. Now what? (Politico)… TikTok vows to fight ‘unconstitutional’ US ban (BBC)… Exclusive: ByteDance prefers TikTok shutdown in US if legal options fail, sources say (Reuters)… although ByteDance Says It Won’t Sell U.S. TikTok (Wall Street Journal)… and while Europe shrugs off Washington’s TikTok fears (Politico), the Digital Services Act means TikTok will stop paying people to watch videos every day (The Verge - see also TikTok’s tweet).

AI got ‘rithm

Let’s start with the conflict in the Middle East… ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza (+972 Magazine, Local Call)… ‘The machine did it coldly’: Israel used AI to identify 37,000 Hamas targets (The Guardian)… A Detailed Map Shows How Airstrikes and Refugees Reshaped Rafah (Bloomberg, using machine learning)… Elon Musk’s X pushed a fake headline about Iran attacking Israel. X’s AI chatbot Grok made it up. (Mashable)… GOOGLE WON’T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT ISRAEL USING ITS PHOTO SOFTWARE TO CREATE GAZA “HIT LIST” (The Intercept)… Exclusive: Google Workers Revolt Over $1.2 Billion Contract With Israel (Time - more here)… Google Fires 28 Employees Involved in Protest of Israeli Cloud Contract (New York Times)…

In other international news, starting with the US… The OMB Memo Shows That AI Can Be Governed (Data & Society’s Janet Haven for Tech Policy Press)… Request for Information: AI-Ready Open Government Data Assets (Department of Commerce)… Data and Models: A Quote Book from the Tech Summit on AI (Federal Trade Commission)… Data & Society and others wrote to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, ENSURING “AI SAFETY” BEGINS WITH ADDRESSING ALGORITHMIC HARMS NOW… while Raimondo Announces Expansion of U.S. AI Safety Institute Leadership Team, including Rob Reich joining to ‘lead engagement with civil society organizations’ - here’s looking at you, UK AISI…

Speaking of which… Politico reports that’s not going so well: Rishi Sunak promised to make AI safe. Big Tech’s not playing ball. (Politico)… a reminder that the UK and US institutes announced a partnership just before our last Digest was published…

And while we’re on AI Safety… UK and Republic of Korea to build on legacy of Bletchley Park - the next AI Summit (note ‘Safety’ has disappeared from the title) will take place on 21 (virtual) and 22 May (real life). DSIT have made a video and everything. The press release talks about civil society and academia being brought in, but it’s not obvious how. Will we have to write another letter? ‘Second global AI safety summit faces tough questions, lower turnout’ is Reuters’ take.

Elsewhere… EU’s AI Act fails to set gold standard for human rights (EDRi)… PACE welcomes draft convention on AI and human rights – but regrets it will not fully cover the private sector (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe)… Will American AI kill European culture? (Politico)… Why the Chinese government is sparing AI from harsh regulations—for now (MIT Technology Review)… Africa’s push to regulate AI starts now (MIT Technology Review)… Responsible AI Governance: A Response to UN Interim Report on Governing AI for Humanity (RAi UK)…

Deep breath for deepfakes… Deepfakes, distrust and disinformation: Welcome to the AI election (Politico)… How people view AI, disinformation and elections — in charts (Politico)… Spot the deepfake: The AI tools undermining our own eyes and ears (Politico)… Fact Checkers Slam Government Inaction on Political Deepfakes Ahead of General Election, Saying Laws ‘Not Fit for Purpose’ (Byline Times)… The Biggest Deepfake Porn Website Is Now Blocked in the UK (Wired)… Spotting Deepfakes in an Election Year: How AI Detection Tools Work — and Sometimes Fail (Global Investigative Journalism Network)… Deepfakes a major risk for the General Election, according to research with the tech profession (BCS)… An AI startup made a hyperrealistic deepfake of me that’s so good it’s scary (MIT Technology Review)… ‘Time is running out’: can a future of undetectable deepfakes be avoided? (The Guardian)… Oversight Board announces two new cases on explicit AI images of female public figures (Meta Oversight Board)… EU political parties promise to steer clear of deepfakes ahead of election (Politico)…

How I Built an AI-Powered, Self-Running Propaganda Machine for $105 (Wall Street Journal)… Julia Angwin fears the public sphere is about to get worse: “AI makes it easier to flood the zone with misinformation” (Reuters Institute)… How the Ad Industry Is Making AI Images Look Less Like AI (Wall Street Journal)… AI Is Poisoning Reddit to Promote Products and Game Google With ‘Parasite SEO’ (404 Media)… Generative AI: the new frontier for gendered disinformation? (Demos)… France is ‘overwhelmed with propaganda,’ minister says (Politico)… Are Chatbots misinforming us about the European Elections? Yes. (Democracy Reporting International)… Exclusive: Tech Companies Are Failing to Keep Elections Safe, Rights Groups Say (Time)…

Although… We need to calm down about AI and elections (Politico Digital Bridge)… Durably reducing conspiracy beliefs through dialogues with AI (Thomas H.Costello, Gordon Pennycook, David G. Rand)… AI Elections Tracker (Rest of World)…

And… Demos, Full Fact, the Electoral Reform Society, Martin Lewis and Jimmy Wales are among those supporting a new Open Letter calling for UK political parties to safeguard election integrity in era of AI…

The impact of AI on creative industries… Five Hollywood writers discuss AI’s impact on their careers (Brookings)… Music has just changed forever and we should be freaking out more about it (James O’Malley)… SAG-AFTRA union secures AI protections for artists in deal with major record labels (Reuters)… Drake: AI Tupac track gone from rapper’s Instagram after legal row (BBC)… The Dystopian Future of TV Is AI-Generated ‘FAST’ Garbage (404 Media)… Survey finds generative AI proving major threat to the work of translators (The Guardian)

And more… The Financial Times and OpenAI strike content licensing deal (FT)… I asked ChatGPT to write some laws — this is what happened (Richard Susskind in The Times)… The person who edited this will soon be redundant (The Spectator)… Fables: Evaluating faithfulness and content selection in book-length summarization (academic paper via Ethan Mollick)… Can AI Replace Human Research Participants? These Scientists See Risks (Scientific American)… ChatGPT essay cheats are a menace to us all (FT)… Clap Or AI Gets It: Can bad reviews kill companies? It’s a start. (Aftermath)… We Can, and We Must, Clown on the Humane AI Pin Forever (404 Media)…

For a more positive spin (a lot of it on the BBC News website)… How AI is being used to prevent illegal fishing (BBC)… ‘AI helps me to make wine for younger drinkers’ (BBC)… Can AI help solve Japan’s labour shortages? (BBC)… The loneliness cure: ex-Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg thinks advanced AI can help (FT)…

In health… Artificial intelligence beats doctors in accurately assessing eye problems (University of Cambridge)… AI’s impact on nursing and health care (National Nurses United)… Can AI save the NHS? It’s going to be a lot harder than our politicians seems to realise (Jess Morley for Comment is Freed)…

On data for AI and copyright etc… New bill would force AI companies to reveal use of copyrighted art (The Guardian)… How Tech Giants Cut Corners to Harvest Data for A.I. (New York Times)… Four Takeaways on the Race to Amass Data for A.I. (New York Times)… Copyright policy options for generative artificial intelligence (CEPR)… How One Author Pushed the Limits of AI Copyright (Wired)… How we learnt to battle the bots (British Psychological Society)…

Big tech… ChatGPT’s ‘hallucination’ problem hit with another privacy complaint in EU (TechCrunch)… OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Other Tech Leaders to Serve on AI Safety Board (Wall Street Journal)… Google considers charging for AI-powered search in big change to business model (FT)… If costs force Google to charge for AI, competitors will cheer (The Guardian)… Google using AI to come up with search answers in UK trial (BBC)… Google Books Is Indexing AI-Generated Garbage (404 Media)… Is Google’s AI Actually Discovering ‘Millions of New Materials?’ (404 Media)… How Google lost ground in the AI race (FT)… Google blocks some California news as fight over online journalism bill escalates (Politico)… Google streamlines structure to speed up AI efforts (FT)…

Meta is accused of censoring a non-profit newspaper and an independent journalist who criticized the company (CNN)… Meta’s Nick Clegg plays down AI’s threat to global democracy (The Guardian)… Meet Your New Assistant: Meta AI, Built With Llama 3 (Meta)… although we referred to this last time, I don’t think I actually linked to this: Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind and Inflection Co-founder, joins Microsoft to lead Copilot (Microsoft)… Announcing new Microsoft AI Hub in London (Microsoft)… Microsoft Deleted Its LLM Because It Didn’t Get a Safety Test, But Now It’s Everywhere (404 Media)… Elon Musk predicts AI will overtake human intelligence next year (FT)… Elon Musk wants to turn Tesla’s fleet into AWS for AI — would it work? (The Verge)… Generative AI Sucks: Meta’s Chief AI Scientist Calls For A Shift To Objective-Driven AI (Forbes)… Apple Says It Was Ordered to Pull WhatsApp From China App Store (New York Times)… A TikTok Whistleblower Got DC’s Attention. Do His Claims Add Up? (Wired)

Everything else, starting with the Future of Humanity Institute… Oxford shuts down institute run by Elon Musk-backed philosopher (Guardian - more here, nothing here)… ‘Eugenics on steroids’: the toxic and contested legacy of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute (The Observer)… AI and the meaning of life: Philosopher Nick Bostrom says technology could bring utopia – after warning Elon Musk about a superintelligent catastrophe (The Independent)… Ideologies of AI and the consolidation of power (First Monday - including ‘The TESCREAL bundle: Eugenics and the promise of utopia through artificial general intelligence’ doing the rounds on social media)…

To understand the risks posed by AI, follow the money (The Conversation)… Giles Wilkes compares the recent TBI and IPPR reports on AI and the economy: If AI solved Baumol’s Cost Disease, that would be GOOD… The rise of the chief AI officer (FT)… The Rise Of The Chief AI Officer: Is A Board Equivalent Necessary? (Forbes)…

AI Computing Is on Pace to Consume More Energy Than India, Arm Says (Bloomberg)… If AI uses a lot of energy and you care about the climate, should you be anti-AI? (LSE)… Could the AI revolution crash our data centers? (Fast Company)…

AI keeps going wrong. What if it can’t be fixed? (FT)… Where is artificial general intelligence? My grandfather’s guess is as good as yours (FT)… AI isn’t useless. But is it worth it? ([citation needed])… AI really is smoke and mirrors: Just not in exactly the way you might think. (Brian Merchant)… Can AI really change our material world? (FT)… AI Safety Is as Narrative Problem (Rachel Coldicutt in Harvard Data Science Review)… Nobody Knows How to Safety-Test AI (Time)… Models, metaphors and minds: Is the brain really a computer? (Institute of Art and Ideas)… A.I. Has a Measurement Problem (New York Times)… Can AI Standards Have Politics? (UCLA Law Review)… The ethics of advanced AI assistants (DeepMind)…

AI Index Report (Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI)… The AI race is generating a dual reality (John Thornhill, FT)… Review Used By UK to Limit Gender Affirming Care Uses Images of AI-Generated Kids (404 Media)… The startup offering free toilets and coffee for delivery workers — in exchange for their data (Rest of World)… ‘Eat the future, pay with your face’: my dystopian trip to an AI burger joint (Guardian)… AI “deathbots” are helping people in China grieve (rest of World)…

And Saturday Night Live looks at AI. Sort of.

DSIT up and take notice

Continuing with AI, because a dedicated section obviously isn’t enough… in case you missed it above, Rishi Sunak promised to make AI safe. Big Tech’s not playing ball. (Politico)… Time has more on the US/UK deal, U.S., U.K. Announce Partnership to Safety Test AI Models… there’s also a written statement from Michelle Donelan… the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum takes a view on Fairness in AI… while DSIT’s deadline for regulator plans on approaching AI was the end of April, and those plans have now been published…

The BBC reports that AI chatbot for civil servants moves a step closer… the Center for Data Innovation convened some private sector experts to answer How Can the UK Encourage the Uptake of AI in the Public Sector?… the agenda for an AI Opportunity Forum meeting leaked… the National Cyber Security Centre (who have a new CEO) worked with international partners on new guidance for Deploying AI Systems Securely… GDS have been experimenting with AI and forms… i.AI and NHS England sign Collaboration Charter to support the use of AI in the NHS (Cabinet Office, NHSE)… the ICO has issued its third call for evidence on generative AI: accuracy of training data and model outputs (ICO)… Deputy Prime Minister and Education Secretary host roundtable to harness the benefits of AI in education (UK government), just as the British Academy and DfE offer an innovation fellowship looking at AI skills… Cabinet Office has issued a note on Improving Transparency of AI use in Procurement, while a brilliantly named academic journal explores Responsibly Buying Artificial Intelligence: A ‘Regulatory Hallucination’ (Current Legal Problems)…

I’m going all Brenda from Bristol with news there could be another new AI centre (Imperial College and the World Economic Forum)… as UKRI published their quinquennial review into the Turing - you may remember the recent Budget included funding for another few years, though the review is not without concerns (in five principal areas: governance, implementation of the strategy, relationships with the ecosystem, financial management, operational effectiveness)…

And is the PM eyeing AI investing as a post-Downing Street career? Number 10 is denying it.

Speaking of AI-obsessed leaders and lots of money… Michelle Donelan used £34,000 of taxpayer funds to cover libel costs (Guardian)… How Michelle Donelan’s libel of academic is linked to secret dossier by new data (the I)… Donelan’s keynote at techUK’s recent policy leadership conference is now available for online viewing…

While we’re on digital and data leadership… in a speech on economic security, deputy PM Oliver Dowden said the government ‘will consult on improvements to our controls on emerging technologies’… government’s new chief data officer has written a couple of pieces for Chief Data Officer Magazine: Data for AI Is the New “Data Is The New Oil” — 4 Strategies for Effective Data Sourcing, and Data for AI — 3 Vital Tactics to Get Your Organization Through the AI PoC Chasm… while CDDO seeks engineering chief to ‘lead thinking of technologists across government’ (Public Technology)…

Lots of said leaders in conversation recently… ‘Challenge limits in the civil service’: Five minutes with 10 Downing Street’s chief analyst Laura Gilbert (Global Government Forum)… ‘What does it take to do my job well? A curious, analytical mindset’, DBT’s director of analysis Ben Cropper tells Civil Service World… as DfT offers £120k for next chief analyst (now closed - sorry for anyone reading this looking for a senior government job)… perm sec/chief exec of HMRC, Jim Harra, was the latest senior data/digital to speak to the government’s own A Modern Civil Service blog, following Sarah Munby (DSIT perm sec), Jenny Brooker (Chief Data Architect at CDDO), and Sue Bateman (interim chief data officer at CDDO) among others… while Defra offers £75k for ‘unique’ role leading cross-government sustainable IT plans (Public Technology)… Whitehall digital pay framework is ‘being revalorised to meet market trends’ (Public Technology)… Better call Saul: National Archives appoints BBC veteran as chief exec (CSW)… and Perm sec apologises after MoD overstates its inventory by more than 250 million items (CSW)…

Further afield, there’s US federal CIO Clare Martorana on ‘human-centred policymaking’ at the speed of AI (Global Government Forum)… Tallinn tales: Estonia’s digital boss discusses the innovative country’s next wave of tech transformations (CSW)…

Over in stats land (Ba-da-ba-da-ba-be bop bop bodda bope)… ‘We need to bang the drum for sufficient investment’: The ‘radical and ambitious principles’ behind the ONS’s Data Strategy (CSW)… Our current position on regulating, responding to and using AI (OSR)… A statistical jigsaw: piecing together UK data comparability (OSR)… Review of reintroduced LFS-derived Labour Market Statistics (OSR)… new report, Analytical leadership: Achieving better outcomes for citizens (OSR)… ONS officials vote to strike over in-office rule (CSW)…

At DSIT… a privacy notice finally gives some details about the National Security Online Information Team (the artist formerly known as the Counter-Disinformation Unit)… ARIA has opened applications for Scaling Compute – AI at 1/1000th the cost… and DSIT has published the Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2024… some new tools and case studies for AI assurance… new guidance on how to Develop and use data analytics tools in children’s social care… its future commercial pipeline… and updates to its leadership team, including a new chief scientific adviser…

In other news… the Department for Business and Trade has published The Smart Data Roadmap: action the government is taking in 2024 to 2025, complete with ministerial statement… The Global Government Forum takes a look at the UK government’s mobile app strategy, noting a parliamentary answer on the subject… Government Communication Service works up innovation strategy (Civil Service World)… HMRC rapped for ‘unsatisfactory’ assurances on Making Tax Digital (CSW)… ICO joins global data protection and privacy enforcement programme (ICO)… Central government data security failings exposed (Think Digital)… FCA transparency unit overhaul ‘pushed by ex-Cameron spokeswoman’ (The Times)…

Twenty-ish years on from the last serious attempt to introduce them, there’s been an uptick in discussions of ID cards of late… The UK’s election may spell out the future of its national ID cards, says Biometric Update in a useful summary, picking up on comments by Lord Blunkett (Lab)… Peter Wells takes a more recent minister, Conservative Neil O’Brien, to task… and Rachel Coldicutt wonders where the speculation has come from…

Parly-vous data?

Despite having a couple of weeks off for Easter, there’s been a fair bit going on down Westminster way.

In the Commons… on 10 April, a new report by the Culture, Media and Sport committee on Creator remuneration touched on AI, naturally… on 12 April, the committee published a report on ‘Trusted voices’ in a conspiracy theory-ridden information environment… on 16 April, there were Westminster Hall debates on Citizens’ Assemblies and Local Democracy and Digital Skills and Careers (the Commons Library pulled together a briefing and linked to previous POST briefings on Developing essential digital skills and Data science skills in the UK workforce)… it was DSIT questions on 17 April, with lots on AI regulation, data protection, AI, the Online Safety Act, and more AI (DCMS questions happened the next day, though without anything obvious on AI/data, while Cabinet Office questions on 25 April included cyber and digital procurement)… on 17 April, the Environmental Audit Committee looked at electronic waste… and senior DSIT officials gave evidence to PAC on 22 April about mobile connectivity…

In the Lords… the government response to the Comms and Digital Committee report on LLMs is now late (was due 2 April)… the European Affairs Committee inquiry on UK-EU data adequacy heard from the Centre for European Reform, Centre for Informational Policy Leadership and techUK on 16 April, from Information Commissioner John Edwards on 23 April, and from Martin Kelly (ex-Home Office) and Dr Nora Ni Loideain (Information Law & Policy Centre, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of London) on 30 April - you have until 31 May to submit evidence… on 19 April, the Lords debated the select committee report on Artificial Intelligence in Weapon Systems… on 24 April there was a question from Baroness Fox (non-affiliated) on crime statistics and gender identity, and on 25 April a question from Baroness Prashar (crossbench) on ethnicity pay gap reporting…

Coming up, in the Commons… 17 May, Private Members’ Bill from Simon Lightwood (Lab) on Public Sector Websites (Data Charges)… 22 May brings the next DSIT question time (DCMS on 23 May, Cabinet Office on 6 June)… and on 22 May, DSIT perm sec Sarah Munby gives evidence to the Public Accounts Committee inquiry on the Use of artificial intelligence in government - you have until 3 May to give evidence.

Coming up, in the Lords… the European Affairs committee has another evidence session on data adequacy on 7 May… also that day, latest future of news inquiry evidence… 8 May, Labour’s Baroness Jones has a question on ‘Ensuring political deepfakes on social media are not used to undermine the outcome of the general election’… 9 May brings a question from Lord Holmes on ‘Protecting intellectual property rights in relation to AI since code of practice plans were discontinued’… on 15 May, Lord Davies has a debate on the Goldacre Review into health data…

Other things of note… the Joint Committee on Human Rights is accepting evidence for an inquiry on The role of human rights in the UK democratic process, which includes a question on AI (you have until 29 May)… the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, which often looks at government data and stats, is looking for a new chair (they must be a Conservative MP) following, well, that whole thing… Public Technology summarised the PAC chair’s report from late March, Spending watchdog sounds warning on government’s ‘severe shortages’ of digital skills and ‘unsustainable’ legacy IT… and mySociety ask What happened to all the APPGs? after a change in rules - groups on digital regulation and responsibility, and digital skills are among those to disappear.

And some quiet ahead: the Commons and Lords will rise on 23 May for Whitsun recess and return on 3 June.

Labour movement

Shall we start with AI, for a change?

In an interview with The I, Labour leader Keir Starmer said:

“People tend to fall into two camps with AI. They either look at the opportunities or look at the threat. I’m in the first camp – so I look at the opportunities. I think the opportunities are profound”.

He insisted he supported the Prime Minister’s initiatives to unite governments around a regulatory framework, saying it is important to ensure that AI will “develop in a way which is in the interest of all communities, and everybody within the UK”. But he concluded: “There’s no question now of putting the genie back in the bottle.”

A big foreign policy piece from David Lammy had a few mentions of AI - China may pose a ‘systemic challenge’ and security threats to the UK, but ‘no grouping of states can address the global threats of the climate crisis, pandemics, and artificial intelligence unless it cooperates with Beijing’… while ‘AI - hype or hope?’ will be one of the subjects for discussion at the Progressive Britain conference.

In other news… Labour reveals plan to digitise NHS personal child health records (The Guardian), Labour’s NHS plan promises ‘tech entrepreneurs and AI in every hospital’ (Public Technology) and Wes Streeting warns NHS that there’ll be no additional funding without ‘major surgery’ under Labour (The Sun) - though let’s be honest, there’s only one thing Streeting will be remembered for this month…

Video is now available of Peter Kyle’s keynote at the techUK policy leadership conference… Kyle was advertising for a media and comms political adviser… Why a Labour government may champion citizens’ assemblies (PoliticsHome)… Labour calls in heavy hitters to advise on ‘modernising’ HMRC (CSW)… Reform and Nesta chief Ravi Gurumurthy (in the New Statesman) are the latest to take a look at the practice of mission-driven government… Tony Blair: ‘Politics is for the weird and the wealthy’ (Sunday Times) - there’s a bit on ID cards and how tech ‘is going to change everything’… Labour targets TikTok microinfluencers ahead of election (The Guardian)… and Labour members can sign up for a forthcoming Labour Digital event…

Local elections happen today. In London, Sadiq Khan [is] aiming to create 150,000 ‘high-quality, well-paid jobs’ by 2028, including AI and cyber (The Guardian - or read the full manifesto)… in the West Midlands, serving Tory MP Andy Street announced that FutureFest will supercharge West Midlands’ Tech sector – powering our economic growth beyond London… LabourList have helpfully pulled together Labour Party election manifesto 2024: Key current policies at a glance… and we may have Scottish elections to look forward to, depending on what happens following the resignation of first minister Humza Yousaf.

In brief

What we’ve been up to

What everyone else has been up to

Events

Good reads

And finally:

Data Protection and Digital Information Bill
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