Minister for AI, Viscount Camrose, declined to clarify the Government’s position on the accountability and regulations of large language models (LLMs) in response to a question tabled by Labour Peer, Lord Watson of Wyre Forest.

Lord Watson asked whether the Government classifies platforms that host LLMs (eg. OpenAI), as either a) hosting providers, or b) publishers and content creators. He then asked, what assessment has the Government made on the impact of this classification on the regulation and accountability of these platforms.

Lord Watson’s question draws attention to the fact that currently, LLMs are facing neither the liability of a creator of an original work nor the copyright and reimbursement obligations of platforms hosting others’ work. They are neither responsible nor obliged to acknowledge other creators when using scraped information on their platforms.

In response, Viscount Camrose said, “the AI Regulation White Paper recognised that allocating liability across the AI supply chain can be highly complex, particularly as these are new technologies that potentially provide a broad range of novel services and functions.” He said the Government is committed to engaging with a range of experts on potential interventions by the summer.

His response leaves the question open and unanswered in recognising the accountability efforts of LLM providers. In the meantime, the PPA continues to engage with the relevant Government Departments and regulatory bodies as they develop their approach to AI.

The PPA has been in contact with Lord Watson to support our lobbying efforts, with attention to the regulation of artificial intelligence.