The House of Commons’ Communications and Digital Committee will examine what needs to happen over the next 1–3 years to ensure the UK can respond to the opportunities and risks posed by large language models.
This will include evaluating the work of Government and regulators, examining how well this addresses current and future technological capabilities, and reviewing the implications of approaches taken elsewhere in the world.
The Committee is seeking evidence on the following questions (there is no requirement to answer all questions in your submission):
Capabilities and trends
- How will large language models develop over the next three years?
- Given the inherent uncertainty of forecasts in this area, what can be done to improve understanding of and confidence in future trajectories?
- What are the greatest opportunities and risks over the next three years?
- How should we think about risk in this context?
Domestic regulation
- How adequately does the AI White Paper (alongside other Government policy) deal with large language models? Is a tailored regulatory approach needed?
- What are the implications of open-source models proliferating?
- Do the UK’s regulators have sufficient expertise and resources to respond to large language models? If not, what should be done to address this?
- What are the non-regulatory and regulatory options to address risks and capitalise on opportunities?
- How would such options work in practice and what are the barriers to implementing them?
- At what stage of the AI life cycle will interventions be most effective?
- How can the risk of unintended consequences be addressed?
International context
- How does the UK’s approach compare with that of other jurisdictions, notably the EU, US and China?
- To what extent does wider strategic international competition affect the way large language models should be regulated?
- What is the likelihood of regulatory divergence? What would be its consequences?
The IET Board of Trustees has decided to respond to the following consultation and will accept responses from IET members including Member, Fellow, Honorary Fellow, Student, and Associate. Please provide your membership number with your consultation response.
The IET is seeking to respond to the consultation and would welcome your views and comments on the questions posed.
This consultation is closed for comment.