The main parties’ manifestos are now out, and while artificial intelligence has been largely absent from the current election discourse, nearly all of them mention AI in their manifestos. 

Here’s a breakdown of what each party said:

Conservative Party

The Conservative Party manifesto takes a largely optimistic view of AI, highlighting its potential in relation to securing the UK’s position as a world leader in innovation, cutting on government bureaucracy and transforming NHS technology and productivity:

Innovation: “We will continue to invest over £1.5 billion in large-scale compute clusters, assembling the raw processing power so we can take advantage of the potential of AI and support research into its safe and responsible use.”

Government bureaucracy “We will make government more efficient, cut waste and attract the best and the brightest by: […]

• Doubling digital and AI expertise in the civil service to take advantage of the latest technologies to transform public services.”

Healthcare: “[We will] Use AI to free up doctors’ and nurses’ time for frontline patient care.”

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Labour Party Manifesto

The Labour Manifesto also highlights AI’s potential to drive innovation and transform the speed and accuracy of diagnostic services:

Innovation: “We will ensure our industrial strategy supports the development of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) sector, removes planning barriers to new datacentres.” 

“We will create a National Data Library to bring together existing research programmes and help deliver data-driven public services, whilst maintaining strong safeguards and ensuring all of the public benefit.”

Healthcare: “We will harness the power of technologies like AI to transform the speed and accuracy of diagnostic services, saving potentially thousands of lives.”

However, it also emphasises the need to maintain strong safeguards, introduce binding regulation and a ban sexually explicit images:

• “Labour will ensure the safe development and use of AI models by introducing binding regulation on the handful of companies developing the most powerful AI models and by banning the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes.”
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‍Liberal Democrats Party Manifesto

The Liberal Democrats Manifesto mentions AI in relation to business, jobs, and political reform, stating it will position the UK as a world leader in artificial intelligence and establish a national assembly to engage the public in AI:

Business and Jobs: “We will work in partnership with business to offer stability and ensure that we maximise the opportunities for investment, growth and employment across the country.” 

“[We will] make the UK a world leader in ethical, inclusive new technology, including artificial intelligence, and a global centre for the development, manufacture and export of clean technologies.”

Political Reform:  “[We will] Establish national and local citizens’ assemblies to ensure that the public are fully engaged in finding solutions to the greatest challenges we face, such as tackling the climate emergency and the use of artificial intelligence and algorithms by the state.”

In terms of addressing the ethical concerns of AI, the manifesto proposes the creation of a cross-sectoral regulatory framework, and to negotiate the UK’s participation in the Trade and Technology Council:

Regulatory Framework: “[We will] Create a clear, workable and well-resourced cross-sectoral regulatory framework for artificial intelligence that:

• Promotes innovation while creating certainty for AI users, developers and investors.
• Establishes transparency and accountability for AI systems in the public sector.
• Ensures the use of personal data and AI is unbiased, transparent and accurate, and respects the privacy of innocent people.”

International Governance: “[We will] Negotiate the UK’s participation in the Trade and Technology Council with the US and the EU, so we can play a leading role in global AI regulation, and work with international partners in agreeing common standards for AI risk and impact assessment, testing, monitoring and audit.”

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Green Manifesto

In what had the largest proportion of its manifesto dedicated to AI, including a section specifically dedicated to ‘Digital Rights’, the Green Party’s manifesto is mainly focused on addressing the ethical concerns of AI. Its proposal include: the introduction of a Digital Bill of Rights, aligning the UK’s approach with international regulation, addressing biases arising from AI and protecting the intellectual property of artists:

Digital Bill of Rights: “Elected Greens would push to establish the UK as a leading voice on standards for the rule of law and democracy in digital spaces with a Digital Bill of Rights to ensure independent regulation of social media providers. This legislation will safeguard elections by responding to the challenges of foreign interference, social media and declining confidence in democracy.

“The Digital Bill of Rights will give the public greater control over their data, ensuring UK data protection is as strong as any other regulatory regime. Given the complexity of this legislation, elected Greens will push for the Bill to be developed through a broad and inclusive public conversation.”

AI Governance: “Elected Greens will push for a precautionary regulatory approach to the harms and risk of AI. We would align the UK approach with our neighbours in Europe, UNESCO and global efforts to support a coordinated response to future risks of AI.”

“We will also aim to secure equitable access to any socially and environmentally responsible benefits these technologies can bring, at the same time as addressing any bias, discrimination, equality, liberty or privacy issues arising from the use of AI.” 

Art and Culture: “We would insist on the protection of the Intellectual Property of artists, writers and musicians and other creators. We would ensure that AI does not erode the value of human creativity and that workers’ rights and interests are respected when AI leads to significant changes in working conditions.”

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Reform UK Manifesto

There was no mention of artificial intelligence in the Reform Manifesto.