The Privacy and Data Protection Journal has published an article by Duc Tran and Tariq Salameh, exploring the approach being taken by the UK government to the regulation of AI systems.

With the overarching aim of facilitating innovation and growth, the UK government has proposed changes to the regulation of AI in the UK including: (i) an amendment to the rules which apply to automated decision making; and (ii) the publication of a Policy Paper setting out a framework for AI regulation going forward.

Automated decision making is governed by Article 22 of the UK General Data Protection Act, and seeks to protect individuals from having important decisions made about them by solely automated means. The draft Data Protection and Digital Information Bill seeks to amend, and arguably relax, these rules in order to ensure their application remains proportionate as society becomes increasingly data driven.

Consistent with the relaxing of the rules surrounding automated decision making, the Policy Paper advocates for a light-touch approach by confirming that the UK government currently do not plan on publishing any legislation to regulate AI. Instead, the Policy Paper focusses on regulating the way AI systems are applied through the existing regulators, as opposed to the actual development of the systems.

In combination, these proposed changes signal that the UK government is gearing towards diverging from the EU's prescriptive approach to the regulation of AI. The article seeks to recap these proposed changes and explore the main differences in the approach to AI regulation being taken by the EU and UK.

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