Committee calls for bill to address AI threat to human rights

Committee calls for bill to address AI threat to human rights The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) has urged legislation to counter the dangers artificial intelligence poses to fundamental rights, according to a summary of its 100‑page report published online. The committee states that AI has been responsible for numerous abuses of rights, citing the creation of sexualised images of women and girls and the scanning of individuals’ faces without consent as illustrative examples. In its recommendations, the JCHR calls for the establishment of a “single, autonomous AI oversight body… on a statutory basis.” It argues that the current legal framework governing AI is “fragmented and hard to navigate,” leaving gaps in protection. “The AI Bill should establish a regulatory authority that classifies different hazard levels and imposes more stringent obligations on higher‑hazard AI systems and models,” the report says. It adds that obligations should apply at every stage of the AI lifecycle, ensuring that those responsible in the supply chain for designing, modifying and deploying AI systems understand their duties and that those duties are effectively fulfilled. The committee also maintains that certain uses of AI must be banned outright because they conflict with human rights. It identifies subliminal techniques and the inappropriate use of profiling or biometric data as potential areas for prohibition. Sobel, quoted in the report, said, “AI is heralded as an unprecedented epoch of technological improvement with the possible to change our lives for better or worse.” He continued, “It is moving with such velocity and complexity that its interaction is hard to accurately predict. What is wide is that at present we are unprepared to deal with its consequences however possibly dire they may be.” The JCHR comprises 12 members drawn from both Houses of Parliament, currently including MPs and peers from the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties. BBC News reports that it is seeking a comment from the government on the proposed AI bill. The release of the committee’s findings on Monday coincides with growing public concern over the challenges posed by AI. Jacob Coxon, an AI researcher who recently left Anthropic, told the BBC this week that staff working on the systems were “genuinely frightened” for the future of humanity. An Anthropic spokesperson informed BBC News that the company is developing “models with some of the strongest safeguards in the industry.”