AI can no doubt bring many benefits to society; automating routine tasks, boosting productivity and increasing reliability. However, it must be used with caution. With threats that AI is taking over the world, could lead to job losses, even the death of the human race as we know it, calls to regulate it have been made in order to try and mitigate the risks this poses to people’s safety, security and Human Rights.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights made up of MPS from the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats and members of the House of Lords have stated that a dedicated AI Bill is needed in order safeguard the risks AI poses. They highlighted concerns regarding equality and discrimination. For AI often exacerbates situations where there has been historic bias, such as in racially profiling individuals, and can infringe on people’s rights in this regard. Privacy and consent have also been issues of concern with individual’s images being used without their knowledge and people’s faces being scanned without consent. In the 32 months from January 2025 3 million people had their faces scanned by police without their consent, which is an alarming statistic. Transparency is a major issue, as when AI is used to make a decision affecting an individual, it may not be clear and this can hamper any challenges a person may want to bring against a process used against them. If AI is being used in in public services such as the criminal justice system or healthcare to bring efficiencies to their services, there needs to be safeguards to ensure that this is applied appropriately.

The current legal framework is not equipped to dela with the challenges of AI which is probably due to the speed at which AI has grown. Whilst Labour’s manifesto when they came into power stated that they would “ensure safe development and use of AI” this has taken a back seat with no legislation proposed. Now however the Joint Committee on Human Rights has put this back on the agenda, proposing legislative protection with a framework to enable a regulator to enforce this, to ensure that Human Rights are safeguarded. This has also gained support from the Law Society and would seem to be necessary, considering the pace and stretch of the use of AI in our everyday lives.

Questions to consider

• Which specific Human Rights articles could AI breach?
• Research any specific problems with AI which have been highlighted in the press.
• Research how AI can discriminate against individuals due to profiling.