AI regulatory highlights from the UK Statement at WTO AI Conference

The UK's Minister for the Future Digital Economy and Online Safety, Baroness Jones, delivered the keynote speech at the World Trade Organisation's AI Conference in Geneva.  

Highlights of the speech from a regulatory perspective include:

• The UK's regulatory approach remains on track - “we are engaging with our expert regulators to better manage responsible AI use, to bolster innovation and growth within their sectors. … Soon, we will bring forward highly targeted binding regulation on the handful of companies developing the most powerful AI systems, to ensure the UK is prepared for this fast-moving technology.”
• Regulation must be interoperable and coherent - ‘the right kind of regulation can stimulate responsible innovation for the benefit everyone.’
• The UK intends to continue work with international partners, such as the OECD and WTO, and committing finance to development programmes such as the OECD-African Union AI Dialogue series and the AI for Development programme which focuses on supporting AI capacity building across Africa and Asia.
• In March 2025, “the UK’s AI Standards Hub will hold a global summit on how AI technical standards can contribute to AI safety and global interoperability.”
• The UK continues to seek to boost responsible AI adoption.  The Government will soon publish the AI Opportunities Action Plan setting out “out the concrete steps we will take to grow our AI sector, accelerate adoption across the economy, and modernise our public services”.  Further examples include growing the AI assurance market and launching a public consultation on AI Management Essentials – a self-management tool designed to support start-ups and SMEs to use AI responsibly (see more here).

The event included publication of a WTO report on AI's potential impact on international trade (here for the event, and here for the report). Some of the notable points were:

• Opportunities - “The report argues that AI could help to overcome trade costs associated with trade logistics, supply chain management and regulatory compliance. For instance, AI can assist in automating and streamlining customs clearance processes and border controls, navigating complex trade regulations and compliance requirements, and predicting risks.”
• Productivity growth - “The report estimates that, under an optimistic scenario of universal AI adoption and high productivity growth up until 2040, global real trade growth could increase by almost 14 percentage points. In contrast, a cautious scenario, with uneven AI adoption and low productivity growth, projects trade growth of just under 7 percentage points. While high-income economies are expected to see the largest productivity gains, lower-income economies have better potential to reduce trade costs.”
• Risks - “However, the report warns that the risk of a growing AI divide between economies and between large and small firms is significant, as are data governance challenges and the need to ensure that AI is trustworthy. There is also a need to clarify how AI relates to intellectual property (IP) rights. The report emphasizes that a lack of coordination could cause increasing regulatory fragmentation with regard to AI. It also notes that addressing the risk of a growing AI divide is essential to leverage the opportunities offered by this technology.”

If you would like to discuss how current or future regulations impact what you do with AI, please contact Tom Whittaker, Brian Wong, Lucy Pegler, Martin Cook, Liz Smith or any other member in our Technology team.