- within Technology topic(s)
- with Senior Company Executives, HR and Inhouse Counsel
- in United Kingdom
- with readers working within the Banking & Credit and Metals & Mining industries
The UK government has published its progress towards implementing its AI Opportunities Action Plan.
In January last year, the government committed to implementing 50 recommendations on AI "to boost growth, raise living standards, transform public services, and create the companies of the future in Britain".
A year later, the result is: 38 out of 50. In other words, a solid C; perhaps even a B minus?
There are, to be fair, some amazing achievements: one third of chest X-rays in the NHS are now AI enabled.
But progress on regulation hasn't been as game-changing, with only half of the Government's recommendations on regulation being met. It's still working with regulators, for example, on regulatory sandboxes, including the cross-economy sandbox "to oversee the deployment of AI-enabled products and services that current regulation hinders".
There's also been no work on reforming the UK text and data mining regime so that "it is at least as competitive as the EU". However, the EU's approach is in flux (yesterday, for example, Legal Affairs MEPs adopted proposals to ensure full transparency and fair remuneration of rightsholders for the use of copyrighted work by genAI: Protect copyrighted work used by generative AI, say Legal Affairs MEPs | News | European Parliament). The upshot? There's too much of a moveable target for alignment with the EU at the moment.
But one target which wasn't in last year's commitments was one to create more robust AI legislation.
The cause? We suspect that it's the 'Washington effect'.
As we mention in our recently-published annual Commercial, Technology & Regulatory Handbook:
"The story of AI regulation in 2025 has been shaped less by Brussels than by Washington. The so called "Washington effect" has created a palpable chilling effect on the appetite for intervention elsewhere: with the US signalling caution around statutory overreach, other capitals are tempering ambitions, opting for enforcement pragmatism rather than sweeping new rules. This dynamic is most visible in the UK, where a year of promises has yielded little by way of binding AI legislation."
As for this year? Expect continuity rather than disruption. The 'Washington effect' will endure and the EU's implementation engine will keep turning despite talk of pauses. Meanwhile, risk management will continue to shift towards contractual solutions as the primary line of defence.
There's been a lot of commendable work by the Government, but there's still a *lot* more to do!
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
