Although discourse over the last few weeks has been rightly dominated by the EU's provisional agreement on their AI Act (discussed in detail here), it appears that the UK will steal the spotlight back in early 2024. 

Michelle Donelan (Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology) confirmed, on 13 December, that the Government would be responding to its pro innovation White Paper (released in March 2023) at the beginning of the new year. 

Without giving much away, the Secretary of State reiterated that the UK are still intent on taking a “proportionate and agile approach, one that's going to be based on evidence, gathering the information, properly understanding the risks before we lurch to legislate ”. However, in relation to the White Paper's anticipation of implementing a “statutory duty on regulators requiring them to have due regard to the principles”, Donelan highlighted that “if you were going to legislate in the AI space surely you would be tackling some of the other issues”. While it was indicated that UK AI legislation won't come in the current parliamentary session, this does appear to indicate a change in track from the initially very light touch, "pro-innovation" approach, suggesting more wide ranging legislation down the line than what was perhaps originally expected. 

Its not clear what such broader legislation may consist of but given the AI Safety Summit only occurred in November, it seems reasonable to assume that there may be some degree of guardrails/requirements on testing and AI safety. Equally, despite calls (also in November) from the House of Lords AI Private Members' Bill (discussed here) for an AI authority, Donelan suggested the current plan is still that there will not be a single AI regulator. Similarly, the Secretary of State was critical of the impact the EU's AI Act will have on private industry, so while any legislation may be less light touch, inevitably it will endeavour to remain firmly pro-innovation. 

Ultimately, its clear there will be some legislation on AI in the future in the UK but the specific approach and the timeframe hasn't been set yet, so this remains a watch this space situation. The timeline might be accelerated by the next wave of AI models which Donelan confirmed would be coming in the next 6 months (which were likely discussed with the developers of said models at the AI Safety Summit). Although, with a general election around the corner, a change in Government could also bring a change in regulatory approach.