BILETA Response to Open Call for Evidence AI Growth Lab, Department for Science, Innovation & Technology

This response, submitted by the British and Irish Law, Education and Technology Association (BILETA), evaluates the UK Government’s proposal for an "AI Growth Lab" designed to accelerate innovation through a cross-economy regulatory sandbox. While BILETA supports the Lab as a mechanism to unlock an estimated £140 billion in UK productivity by 2030, the association identifies significant legal and operational hurdles that must be addressed to ensure public trust and national security.

The response highlights critical "compliance black holes," including the chilling effect of the Online Safety Act on AI developers and the lack of a commercial Text and Data Mining (TDM) exception in IP law. To mitigate risks, BILETA advocates for a "technology-forcing" regulatory model that mandates high-assurance technical standards, such as NIST IAL2 for zero-retention biometrics and ISO 20022 for financial messaging.

Crucially, the response emphasizes that innovation must not come at the cost of equity or safety. It cites evidence of a 10.7% higher error rate in AI systems for certain racial subgroups and a 704% surge in biometric injection attacks, driven by generative AI. Furthermore, noting that 98% of deepfake videos are pornographic and the average loss from deepfake-related CEO fraud exceeds $500,000, BILETA recommends:

Strict Corporate Liability: Adopting the "failure to prevent fraud" model from the ECCTA 2023.

Safe Harbours: Protecting researchers conducting "Red Teaming" on high-risk models.

Algorithmic Fairness: Mandating Explainable AI (XAI) and representative synthetic training data to eliminate bias.

Ultimately, the AI Growth Lab should serve as a "Transatlantic Common Defence," positioning the UK as a leader in trustworthy AI by converting sandbox evidence into streamlined, dynamic secondary legislation.