In the latest episode of the Law for Lawmakers podcast, JUSTICE explores the challenges of protecting rights as the use of artificial intelligence spreads throughout society.  

Ellen Lefley, JUSTICE’s deputy legal director, warns that a lack of national legislation on the use of AI has left public and private bodies free to deploy powerful technologies without proper oversight.  

Not a single law even mentions artificial intelligence in name, she says, with the UK instead relying on a “patchwork” of existing legal and regulatory requirements built for other purposes.  

For example, 43 police forces across England and Wales are experimenting with AI-driven facial recognition, Lefley says, with each adopting their own rules for its application, despite significant concerns about the impact on civil liberties.  

Describing the situation as a “wild west”, she calls for national standards in areas like biometrics to give legal clarity, ensuring AI is used consistently and in accordance with human rights.  

Lefley said: “We don't have a single bill or act on the books that uses the words artificial intelligence. Nor do we have one that uses the words facial recognition technology, which is probably the most famous and most broadly used piece of artificial intelligence in policing…

“The problem is that when you are operating on a patchwork of laws, it lacks real clarity for the police officers who are deploying it, as well as the public.”

Lefley also raises concerns about how AI is being used to monitor the bank accounts of benefits claimants.  

Last year, new legislation ordered banks to examine the accounts of all customers receiving universal credit, pension credit or employment and support allowance, and to share any evidence of fraud or payment errors with the Department for Work and Pensions for investigation.  

This form of “mass surveillance” would be impossible without AI-based automation, Lefley says, yet the act that created these powers contained no reference to the technology, and no wider rules were in place to limit its implementation.  

She added: “It’s a question of trying to identify where new technological capabilities are empowering the state to take new powers and new capabilities, where that might be changing the relationship between the citizen and the state - particularly with regards to surveillance. We want there to be rules for that.”

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Future episodes

Later in the series:

• Lord Strathclyde, Chair of the House of Lords Constitution Committee, discusses the committee’s recent report on threats to the rule of law in this country.

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