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The government has published plans for how it wants to regulate AI technology which it says will “turbocharge” the growth of AI in the UK, while countering potential risks of rapidly emerging computer intelligence to society.

The regulations will apply to all applications of AI including powerful “language models” like the headline-grabbing Chat-GPT and image-generating software like Midjourney AI.

These algorithms’ abilities to pass exams and write poetry, as well as generate misinformation and fake images have instilled awe and anxiety in equal measure.

“We’re not denying the risks,” said Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary, Michelle Donelan. “That’s why we’ve got a proportionate framework in terms of this regulatory approach, one that can help the UK to seize the opportunities.”

Ms Donelan spoke to Sky News during a tour of UK AI company DeepMind, now owned by Google, which last year used its AlphaFold AI to solve the structure of almost every known protein. The development was a landmark moment for understanding biology, and could lead to faster and safer drug development.

AI has huge potential to increase the productivity of businesses, improve access to learning and public services and revolutionise healthcare. The government claims the sector was worth £3.7bn to the UK economy last year.

And it wants that to grow, by offering AI companies a regulatory environment with less legal and administrative red tape than rival economies.

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Will this chatbot replace humans?

So, it’s not proposing new laws. Instead, it’s looking to existing regulators like the Health and Safety Executive and the Competition and Markets Authority, to apply key principles around safety, transparency, and accountability to emerging AI.

In a very Silicon Valley-sounding move, the government is even offering a £2m “sandbox” for AI developers to test how regulation will be applied to AI before they release it to market.

But is a “light touch” regulatory approach a mistake, in the face of looming concerns around AI that could either run out of control or be misused?

Examples are already emerging of text and image-based AI’s ability to generate misinformation, like entirely fake images of the arrest, and then triumphant escape of Donald Trump; or the Pope sporting a white puffer jacket.

That’s not to mention AI being used by hackers or scammers to write code for computer viruses or peddle ever more convincing online frauds.

In the face of that, the EU is proposing strong AI legislation and a “risk-based” approach to regulating AI.

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‘If we legislate now, it will be out of date’

The UK government makes the not unreasonable point that it’s hard to know what an AI law should say, given we don’t know what the AI of tomorrow looks like.

“If we legislate now, it will be out of date,” said Ms Donelan. “We want a process that can be nimble, can be agile, can be responsible can prioritise safety can prioritise transparency, but can keep up with the pace of the change that’s happening in this sector.”

The government says it doesn’t rule out the possibility of legislation to regulate AI in the future and Donelan is unapologetic in trying to make the UK attractive to AI companies.

“Shouldn’t the UK be leading the way? Shouldn’t we be in securing the benefits for our public services for our NHS or our education system for our transport network?” she says.

But it’s proving very hard for the government to protect the privacy and the safety of children online. When it comes to AI, its regulatory battles with Big Tech are probably only just beginning.

“Many [Big Tech companies] to me seem honestly to want to do the best for humanity,” says Professor Anil Seth, a cognitive scientist at the University of Sussex. “Unfortunately, markets don’t work that way and companies are rewarded for their share price.”

Many experts point to the fierce battle right now between Google, which is rushing to release Bard, its AI chatbot, and Microsoft, which has already built OpenAI’s GPT4 language model into its Bing search engine.

These tools have the power to emulate and interpret natural human language, or “understand” images so well, even their developers appear to be unsure of how they might be used. Yet they’ve been released publicly for us to try. A commendably open and transparent way of introducing AI to the world, or a recipe for disaster?

“Good intentions are not enough,” says Professor Seth. “We do need good intentions coupled with wise and enforceable regulation.”

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Eight arrests in connection with two separate terrorism investigations

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Eight arrests in connection with two separate terrorism investigations

Eight men have been arrested by the Metropolitan Police in two unconnected but “significant” terrorism investigations.

In one operation on Saturday, counter-terror officers arrested five men – four of whom are Iranian nationals – as they swooped in on various locations around the country. All are in police custody.

The Met said the arrests related to a “suspected plot to target a specific premises”.

In an update shortly after midnight, the force said: “Officers have been in contact with the affected site to make them aware and provide relevant advice and support, but for operational reasons, we are not able to provide further information at this time.”

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “Counter-terrorism policing, supported by police and colleagues from across the country, have conducted arrests in two really significant operations, both of which have been designed to keep the public safe from threats.

“There are several hundred officers and staff working on this investigation, and we will work very hard to ensure we understand the threats to the wider public.”

He refused to say if the plot was related to Israel, but described it as “certainly significant” and said “it is unusual for us to conduct this scale of activity”.

He also asked the public to “avoid speculation and some of the things that are being posted online”.

MI5 director general Ken McCallum said in October that the intelligence agency had responded to 20 “potentially lethal” Iran-backed plots since 2022. He warned of the risk of an “increase or broadening of Iranian state aggression in the UK”.

Read more: Terror arrests came in context of raised warnings about Iran

Children ‘petrified’ by armed police

Rochdale resident Kyle Warren, who witnessed one of the arrests at a neighbouring house, said his children had been playing in the garden when they came running into the house, saying a man in a mask had told them to go inside.

“Obviously, I was a bit worried,” Mr Warren told Sky News’ Lisa Dowd, and so he went into the garden to investigate.

“As we’ve come out, we just heard a massive bang, seen loads of police everywhere with guns, shouting at us to get inside the house.”

Kyle Warren said his children were 'petrified'
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Kyle Warren said his children were ‘petrified’

From upstairs in his house, he then heard “loads of shouting in the house” and saw a man being pulled out of the back of the house, “dragged down the side entry and thrown into all the bushes and then handcuffed”.

There were about 20 to 30 officers with guns, he believes.

“It’s just shocking, really. You don’t expect it on your doorstep.”

His daughters were “petrified… I don’t think they’ve ever seen a gun, so to see 20 masked men with guns running round was quite scary for them”.

Mr Warren, who only moved into his house a year ago, said he had “never really seen anyone going in or out” of the house and actually thought it was empty.

One suspect was arrested in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester. Pic: Sarah Cash
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One suspect was arrested in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester. Pic: Sarah Cash

One suspect was arrested in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester. Pic: Sarah Cash
Image:
One suspect was arrested in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester. Pic: Sarah Cash

Arrests and searches around the country

The Met added officers were carrying out searches at a number of addresses in the Greater Manchester, London and Swindon areas in connection with the investigation.

It said those detained were:

• A 29-year-old man arrested in the Swindon area
• A 46-year-old man arrested in west London
• A 29-year-old man arrested in the Stockport area
• A 40-year-old man arrested in the Rochdale area
• A man whose age was not confirmed arrested in the Manchester area.

Passenger footage of a police van in Stockport over the terrorism arrest SQUARE OR PORTRAIT
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A 29-year-old man was arrested in the Stockport area

Terror arrests in separate investigation

Police also arrested three further Iranian nationals in London on Saturday as part of another, unrelated counter-terror investigation.

The suspects were detained under section 27 of the National Security Act 2023, which allows police to arrest those suspected of being “involved in foreign power threat activity”.

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Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “These were two major operations that reflect some of the biggest counter state threat and counter terrorism operations that we have seen in recent years.

“This reflects the complexity of the kinds of challenges to our national security that we continue to face.”

Earlier, she thanked police and security services in a statement, and called the incidents “serious events that demonstrate the ongoing requirement to adapt our response to national security threats”.

Last year, the government placed the whole of the Iranian state – including its intelligence services – on the enhanced tier of the new foreign influence registration scheme.

It means anyone asked by Iran to carry out actions for the state must declare it, or face prison time.

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UK

Terror arrests came in context of raised warnings about Iran, with ongoing chaos in its own backyard

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Terror arrests came in context of raised warnings about Iran, with ongoing chaos in its own backyard

These are two separate and unrelated investigations by counter-terror officers.

But the common thread is nationality – seven out of the eight people arrested are Iranian.

And that comes in the context of increased warnings from government and the security services about Iranian activity on British soil.

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Counter terror officers raid property

Last year, the director general of MI5, Ken McCallum, said his organisation and police had responded to 20 Iran-backed plots presenting potentially lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents since January 2022.

He linked that increase to the ongoing situation in Iran’s own backyard.

“As events unfold in the Middle East, we will give our fullest attention to the risk of an increase in – or a broadening of – Iranian state aggression in the UK,” he said.

The implication is that even as Iran grapples with a rapidly changing situation in its own region, having seen its proxies, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, decimated and itself coming under Israeli attack, it may seek avenues further abroad.

More on Iran

The government reiterated this warning only a few weeks ago, with security minister Dan Jarvis addressing parliament.

“The threat from Iran sits in a wider context of the growing, diversifying and evolving threat that the UK faces from malign activity by a number of states,” Jarvis said.

“The threat from states has become increasingly interconnected in nature, blurring the lines between: domestic and international; online and offline; and states and their proxies.

“Turning specifically to Iran, the regime has become increasingly emboldened, asserting itself more aggressively to advance their objectives and undermine ours.”

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Anybody working for Iran in UK must register or face jail, government announces

As part of that address, Jarvis highlighted the National Security Act 2023, which “criminalises assisting a foreign intelligence service”, among other things.

So it was notable that this was the act used in one of this weekend’s investigations.

The suspects were detained under section 27 of the same act, which allows police to arrest those suspected of being “involved in foreign power threat activity”.

Those powers are apparently being put to use.

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Pictured: Boy killed in Gateshead industrial estate fire – 14 children arrested on suspicion of manslaughter

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Pictured: Boy killed in Gateshead industrial estate fire - 14 children arrested on suspicion of manslaughter

Tributes have been paid to 14-year-old Layton Carr who died in a fire at an industrial estate.

Eleven boys and three girls, aged between 11 and 14 years, have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter after the incident in Gateshead on Friday. They remain in police custody.

Drone view showing the aftermath of a fire at Fairfield industrial park at Bill Quay, Gateshead
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Police were alerted to a fire at Fairfield industrial park in the Bill Quay area

Firefighters raced to Fairfield industrial park in the Bill Quay area shortly after 8pm, putting out the blaze a short time later.

Police then issued an appeal for a missing boy, Layton Carr, who was believed to be in the area at the time.

In a statement, the force said that “sadly, following searches, a body believed to be that of 14-year-old Layton Carr was located deceased inside the building”.

Layton’s next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers, police added.

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Teenager dies in industrial estate fire

A fundraising page on GoFundMe has been set up to help Layton’s mother pay for funeral costs.

Organiser Stephanie Simpson said: “The last thing Georgia needs to stress trying to pay for a funeral for her Boy Any donations will help thank you.”

One tribute in a Facebook post read: “Can’t believe I’m writing this my nephew RIP Layton 💔 forever 14 you’ll be a massive miss, thinking of my sister and 2 beautiful nieces right now.”

Another added: “My boy ❤️ my baby cousin, my Layton. Nothing will ever come close to the pain I feel right now. Forever 14. I’ll miss you sausage.”

A third said: “Rest in peace big lad such a beautiful soul taken far to soon my thoughts are with you Gee stay strong girl hear for u always.”

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Detective Chief Inspector Louise Jenkins, of Northumbria Police, also said: “This is an extremely tragic incident where a boy has sadly lost his life.”

She added that the force’s “thoughts are with Layton’s family as they begin to attempt to process the loss of their loved one”.

They are working to establish “the full circumstances surrounding the incident” and officers will be in the area to “offer reassurance to the public”, she added.

A cordon remains in place at the site while police carry out enquiries.

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