Artificial intelligence could increasingly affect people’s fundamental rights without adequate legal safeguards, prompting British lawmakers to demand a new law specifically designed to control the risks posed by the rapidly developing technology.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR), made up of MPs and members of the House of Lords, said existing laws were not strong enough to deal with the scale of the threat posed by AI and called for a new Bill to protect human rights.
The committee’s concern centres on the growing use of AI in areas that can directly affect people’s lives, raising questions about how individuals will be protected when automated systems influence decisions or processes involving their rights.
Labour MP Alex Sobel, chair of the committee, said the UK and other countries currently lacked an AI regulatory framework capable of adequately addressing the challenges created by the technology.
“Nowhere in the world, including the UK,” currently has an approach to AI regulation that is “fit for purpose,” Sobel said, stressing the need to address the risks before they become more difficult to control.
The warning comes as AI development accelerates globally, with governments and technology companies under growing pressure to balance its potential benefits with concerns over safety, accountability and individual rights.
A UK government spokesperson acknowledged that AI was advancing at an “extraordinary pace”, saying the technology was creating opportunities as well as risks. The government said it was working internationally to develop standards and safeguards to protect people.
The call for stronger regulation also comes as Dario Amodei, head of US AI company Anthropic, proposed a framework involving global regulation, industry-wide rules and independent monitoring of AI models during their development, BBC reported.
