14 October 2023 , 19:27
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Labour is considering introducing new laws to combat AI disinformation, the Mirror understands.
It comes after party leader Keir Starmer was targeted with a 'deepfake' audio of his voice apparently berating an aide.
The fake recording circulated around Labour's party conference in Liverpool on Monday, a day before his keynote speech.
Websites capable of making believable imitations of anyone’s voice from just a few minutes of recorded speech can be accessed for as little as £6 - and operated from any modern smartphone.
And Parliament’s vast archive of House of Commons footage contains more than enough voice recordings to make a sophisticated fake of any MP.
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Shadow Digital Minister Alex Davies-Jones said the fake of Mr Starmer was "just the start of what could be coming."
She told a fringe event at the conference: "Yes, it's a threat to democracy, but we've also got threats to community cohesion and national security - all of these things are really potentially dangerous."
Rishi Sunak is set to host an AI summit next month, gathering tech firm bosses to discuss regulation and placing reasonable limits on the use of such technology.
Meanwhile it's understood Labour are considering options for an AI bill of its own, after the next election.
Options on the table could include beefing up existing regulators - including Ofcom and the Advertising Standards Agency - to keep up with the leap forward in technology.
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The EU has already introduced the world's first AI Act, which bans "behavioural manipulation" of people, social scoring and facial recognition.
And it places restrictions and transparency requirements on text generation services like Chat GPT.
But Labour has yet to decide whether such a robust approach would be the right one for the UK.
"We know that the Prime Minister sees himself as a tech bro," Ms Davies-Jones told the event.
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"But we have some real exponential risks facing us on a daily basis - whether that's the threat of disinformation, generative AI, the threat of discrimination and bias...that needs to be addressed.
"It should be an international collaboration and approach. So that's where our focus should be. We're already looking at what the actual AI legislation should be about."
She added that the party would work on an "alternative summit - working with experts in the field so we can develop our policies ahead of a general election ".