We have submitted our response to the government’s call for evidence on the proposed AI Growth Lab, welcoming the Lab’s potential to support innovation, while warning that it will not address the most significant barriers to AI adoption.
The submission, written by our AI Task Force, states that while the Lab will make it easier to develop and adopt AI, it does not address the most significant barriers to AI adoption, namely skills gaps, data unreadiness and the complexity of mapping data to AI capabilities.
The submission acknowledges the benefits of a cross-economy AI Growth Lab, including fostering collaboration, enabling innovators to explore use cases organically and promoting learning across sectors. However, it also flagged potential drawbacks, noting that broader regulatory risk and a lack of focus could reduce the Lab’s relevance for participants.
Reiterating our position on live testing environments, the evidence highlighted the importance of fostering collaboration and innovation, while prioritising robust evaluation and managing risk.
We call for clear eligibility criteria for participation in the Lab, based on commitments around robust evaluation, plans for mitigating risk, shared learnings, and testing. Our submission recommended several controls on companies taking part in the Lab, including requirements around data governance, monitoring and compliance with clear ethical and legal standards.
Overall, the Society believes that a successful pilot will provide valuable evidence and insights to inform regulatory change, which must be based on rigorous scrutiny, consultation and impact assessment.
Read the full response.