Tech moves fast, regulation doesn’t – that’s what the prime minister is now having to contend with.
People invent new technology like AI, new social media features designed to draw you in, new ways to interact online – and in the background, the authorities scramble to keep up.
The prime minister is trying.
Today, he announced the government would close a loophole that meant one-to-one conversations with AI bots weren’t regulated in the same way as social media.
It’s an update to the Online Safety Act that was first shown to Parliament in 2019, more than two years before ChatGPT burst onto the scene and revolutionised how we use the internet.
It took until 2023 to be passed and we only saw widespread enforcement in July last year. There are still elements waiting to be enforced.
During that time, there have been countless AI bots entering the mainstream, from X’s Grok, CharacterAI’s personalised AI agents, Google’s Gemini and more.
Sir Keir Starmer did address the regulatory lag this morning, saying that if a consultation shows a social media ban is the best course of action for the UK, he will now be able to enforce it “within months, not years”.
He also announced a change that means the social media data of young people will be preserved by default if they…
