Author: Eternity Lab

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ChatGPT now tells you its limits with Deep Research and GPT-4.5 chats

While ChatGPT is available for free and without an account, premium access gets you better features, fewer limitations, and the ability to try some of the company’s newest AI features before they roll out more widely. People can choose between the ChatGPT Plus ($20/month) and Pro ($200/month) models, with the latter offering the best perks. For example, ChatGPT Pro was the first tier to get ChatGPT Operator and Deep Research, OpenAI’s first AI agents. Since then, OpenAI has brought Deep Research to the cheaper subscription option, but with more limitations.

OpenAI also launched its newest model, GPT-4.5, which is fully available to premium users. However, again, ChatGPT Plus users have limits in place. Thankfully, now there’s an easy way to see some of these limits when using your ChatGPT Plus subscription to get Deep Research reports or chat with GPT-4.5.

I’ve been a ChatGPT Plus subscriber for over a year now, and I’ve generally been happy with the experience. I am willing to pay a subscription for better AI features rather than get an ad-based subscription. But I’m hardly ready to make the jump to the ChatGPT Pro tier. I’m yet to see a feature that would warrant spending $200/month to access all the AI tools OpenAI has to offer and increase limits significantly.

That said, I’m also aware of the limits on my Plus tier. I recently got Deep Research access in the EU, and I’ve already started using it. For example, I went to ChatGPT for a Deep Research report on visiting Tokyo, and it was an amazing decision.

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Similarly, GPT-4.5 is available to ChatGPT Plus users, the model OpenAI is currently testing before a wider rollout and before the launch of GPT-5. But it also comes with limitations.

OpenAI gives ChatGPT Plus users 10 Deep Research reports a month, 12 times fewer than the Pro option. The GPT-4.5 limits for Plus aren’t clear, but Pro users have full access to all OpenAI models.

ChatGPT Plus now shows you Deep Research and GPT-4.5 limits.ChatGPT Plus now shows you Deep Research and GPT-4.5 limits. Image source: Chris Smith, BGR

When using these two features, I’ve noticed pop-ups appear above the ChatGPT composer. They informed me how many Deep Research reports I have left this month and how many GPT-4.5 chats I have.

The pop-ups have an upgrade option for ChatGPT Pro, not that I’m considering it. But they’re still great to see, allowing me to keep track of my current usage.

Even without the pop-ups, OpenAI developed a handy feature to let you quickly see the number of Deep Research reports left this month. Just hover the mouse over the Deep Research button, and you’ll see the number of reports left and the date the limits reset for your account. The screenshot above shows it in action. Pro users would also see how many Deep Research queries they have left this way.

I’ve also caught the GPT-4.5 limit warning in the screenshot above. As you can see, I have 5 responses from GPT-4.5 remaining until the limits reset later this week. I don’t care as much about this particular limit. I’ll just switch back to GPT-4o, which is good enough for most of my needs. 

However, there’s no other way to see your GPT-4.5 limits, at least not as easily as the Deep Research count. I’ll also say that the number of responses likely refers to distinct chats with the AI rather than independent responses across the AI experience. Or that seems to be the case right now.

Then again, this is the first month I’ve seen these limit counts in the ChatGPT user interface. I’ll have a better chance to explore them in April.

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Siri needs its iCloud moment: A complete rebrand

Even without the current Apple Intelligence fiasco, we already realized that Apple needs to ditch Siri or rebrand it in favor of a new personal assistant. Long before Apple Intelligence or LLMs started taking over the internet, we already felt like Siri was lost in time.

In the past few years, reports suggested the issue with Cupertino’s personal assistant is bigger than it seems. In 2023, the New York Times reported about the rise and fall of the assistants, including why Siri struggles with what sounds like regular tasks. John Burkey, a former Apple engineer who worked on the virtual assistant, said it had a “cumbersome design that made it time-consuming to add new features.”

In 2014, he was given the job of improving Siri. But since its database contains a gigantic list of words in nearly two dozen languages, its vast knowledge bade it “one big snowball,” as if someone wants to add a word to Siri’s database, “it goes in one big pile.”

With that in mind, Burkey explained that what seemed like small updates, such as new phrases, would require rebuilding the entire database, which could take up to six weeks. More complex features like new search tools could take nearly a year, meaning Siri could never become a creative assistant like ChatGPT unless it’s completely rebuilt.

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When looking back at this report, it makes sense why Apple decided to indefinitely delay Siri’s on-screen awareness capabilities, as it still doesn’t know which month we are. This is why I think Apple should rebrand Siri and do something similar to what the MobileMe-iCloud transition was.

Siri feels like MobileMe, but Apple was fast enough to address it

Before iCloud was a thing, Apple had MobileMe. The service was available from July 2008 until October 2011, when iCloud was introduced. However, this subscription-based service was very unstable and had several syncing issues.

This is why when Steve Jobs introduced iCloud and said the service “just worked,” he rhetorically asked: “Why should I believe them? They’re the ones that brought me MobileMe!” Still, iCloud was better than MobileMe, and even though it had a few issues over the years, it’s Apple’s main service.

With that in mind, I think Siri needed a similar approach. At this moment, Apple is focusing on reshaping the personal assistant’s command structure. However, I don’t think promoting executives is enough. If Apple wants to be serious about AI, it must catch up with major players and offer a different experience. Should it call the new assistant Newton, Siri 2.0, or Apple Assistant? It doesn’t matter.

Siri’s revamp is urgent, and Cupertino needs to offer a faster response and service to users.

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iOS 18.4 RC now available ahead of official launch next month

Apple is likely almost done with the beta testing of iOS 18.4, as it has just released its RC. The Release Candidate version comes after Apple announced that AirPods Max will finally feature lossless support. Still, it’s unlikely this new build will bring this function.

This is the third beta since Apple announced the personalized Siri experience will take longer to arrive on the iPhone. Still, the company is including at least three new improvements for Apple Intelligence in iOS 18.4 RC:

  • New languages: Apple adds Chinese, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and localized English for Singapore and India.
  • Image Playground: The long-awaited Sketch style is now available alongside the Animation and Illustration options.
  • Genmoji: Apple tweaked the Genmoji icon on the keyboard, as it now reads “Genmoji.”

With iOS 18.4 RC, Apple added the seven emojis teased by the Unicode Consortium last year. The company also includes the following features:

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  • Apple News+ Food: This update will bring a new Food section to Apple News. Subscribers can access recipes, tips for healthy eating, restaurants, and more.
  • Vision Pro app: With iOS 18.4, Apple Vision Pro will get its own iPhone app. It will help you download apps, visionOS content, tips, and information and even set up Guest Mode.
  • Apple Maps change: You can now set a Preferred Language to get directions instead of the one you use on your iPhone.
  • Ambient music: iOS 18.4 adds new Control Center toggles for Ambient Music, including Chill, Productivity, Sleep, and Wellbeing.
  • CarPlay update: Cars with bigger screens now get three rows of apps displayed.
  • Visual Intelligence: Apple added the Visual Intelligence feature to the Action Button while also adding support for the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16e.
  • Control Center: The Control Center now displays an Apple Intelligence section with three options: Talk to Siri, Type to Siri, and Visual Intelligence.
  • Apple Vision Pro app: If you have an Apple Vision Pro, iOS 18.4 beta 2 added the already-announced Vision Pro app.

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March Patch Tuesday brings 57 fixes, multiple zero-days

Microsoft has dropped a grand total of 57 fixes to mark the third Patch Tuesday update of 2025 – rising to closer to 70 when third-party vulns are taken into account – including six zero-days and six critical flaws needing urgent attention.

The zero-days comprise a security feature bypass in Microsoft Management Console, two remote code execution (RCE) issues in Windows Fast FAT File System Driver and Windows NTFS, two information disclosure vulnerabilities in Windows NTFS, and a privilege escalation flaw in Windows Win32 Kernel Subsystem.

All are listed as exploited by Microsoft, but have not yet been made public, and all are considered to be important in their severity, carrying CVSS scores that range from 4.6 to 7.8.

A seventh vulnerability, an RCE issue in Windows Access, has been listed as public but does not appear to be actively exploited at the time of writing.

The six critical vulnerabilities, carrying CVSS scores of 7.8 through 8.8, are all RCE flaws. Two of them affect Windows Remote Desktop Services, and the four others relate to Microsoft Office, Windows Domain Name Service, Remote Desktop Client, and Windows Subsystem for Linux Kernel.

“All six of the vulnerabilities that Microsoft has labelled as exploit detected are resolved with the monthly cumulative update,” said Tyler Reguly, Fortra associate director of security research and development.

“This means a single update to roll out to fix all of these at once. Thankfully, none of them require post-patch configuration steps. The same is true for five of the six critical severity vulnerabilities. A lot of our important fixes come from the same patch.

“The remaining critical vulnerability, CVE-2025-24057, and the publicly disclosed vulnerability, CVE-2025-26630, both require Office updates. For those running click-to-run, there’s not a lot to do, but for those running Office 2016, there are two patches to install, one for Office and one for Access,” he added.

Reguly said that fortunately, this limited the amount of patching needed to resolve the attention-grabbing flaws. “However,” he said, “they are big ticket items and with headlines likely to state, Microsoft patches six zero-day vulnerabilities, admins will likely have a lot of questions to answer about the state of their patching.”

Big ticket items: big impacts

Assessing these big ticket items in a little more depth, Immersive senior director of threat research, Kev Breen said the NTFS and FAT RCE flaws probably warrant the greatest attention. These flaws form part of a chain with the two NTFS information disclosure vulnerabilities.

“These four CVEs are all related to a remote code execution vulnerability that is associated with mounting Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) files. These are tracked separately as CVE-2025-24984, CVE-2025-24985, CVE-2025-24991, and CVE-2025-24993, so when it comes to patch management ensure all four are covered.

Breen explained that the exploit chain relies on the attacker convincing a user to open or mount a virtual hard disk (VHD) file. These are typically used to store operating systems for virtual machines and while more usually associated with VMs, there have been cases down through the years where such files have been used to smuggle malware payloads onto target systems.

“Depending on the configuration of Windows systems, simply double-clicking on a VHD file could be enough to mount the container and, therefore, execute any payloads contained within the malicious file,” said Breen. “Organisations should check their security tools for any VHD files being sent via email or downloaded from the internet and look to add security rules or blocks for these file types where they are not required.”

Meanwhile, Alex Vovk, CEO and co-founder of Action1, considered some of the implications of the Windows Win32 Kernel EoP flaw, tracked as CVE-2025-24984.

“CVE-2025-24983 provides a direct path from low privileges to SYSTEM access, making it an attractive target for attackers with initial access via phishing, malware, compromised credentials or insider threats,” said Vovk.

“Although classified as high complexity, well-resourced attackers – including state-sponsored groups and cyber criminal organisations – have historically overcome such constraints through automation and repeated attempts. Race-condition vulnerabilities in kernel subsystems have proven to be reliably exploitable, given sufficient attacker persistence and environment predictability.   

“Organisations heavily dependent on Windows infrastructure – including enterprises, governments, and critical infrastructure sectors – are at risk. Kernel-level privilege escalation vulnerabilities remain highly valuable to attackers, as they serve as a key pivot point in advanced cyber attacks, enabling deeper network infiltration and persistent access,” said Vovk.

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iPadOS 18.4 RC now available with these features

Apple nears the end of the iPadOS 18.4 testing with its RC version. After a mild iPadOS 18.3 update, Cupertino has much more to unveil for the company’s tablets. Here’s everything new with this upcoming software update, including new Apple Intelligence features.

The most important update coming with iPadOS 18.4 is the all-new Mail experience. This is what you can expect:

  • All-new Mail experience: After adding this new Mail to iOS 18.2, Apple is introducing new ways for users to manage their inboxes. On-device categorization organizes and sorts incoming emails into Primary for personal and time-sensitive emails, Transactions for confirmations and receipts, Updates for news and social notifications, and Promotions for marketing emails and coupons. Mail also features a new digest view that pulls together all of the relevant emails from a business, allowing users to quickly scan for what’s important at the moment.
  • New Apple Intelligence languages: Apple adds Chinese, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and localized English for Singapore and India.
  • Image Playground: The long-awaited Sketch style is now available alongside the Animation and Illustration options.
  • Genmoji: Apple tweaked the Genmoji icon on the keyboard, as it now reads “Genmoji.”

In addition to these Apple Intelligence features, iPadOS 18.4 RC adds the following functions and tweaks:

  • Apple News+ Food: This update will bring a new Food section to Apple News. Subscribers can access recipes, tips for healthy eating, restaurants, and more.
  • Ambient music: iPadOS 18.4 adds new Control Center toggles for Ambient Music, including Chill, Productivity, Sleep, and Wellbeing.
  • Apple Maps change: You can now set a Preferred Language to get directions instead of the one you use on your iPad.
  • New emoji: Apple finally added the seven emojis teased by the Unicode Consortium last year. Still, they’re not as fun as you’d expect.

Alongside this new build, Apple seeded the release candidate versions of iOS 18.4, macOS 15.4, watchOS 11.4, tvOS 18.4, and visionOS 2.4. We’ll let you know if we find anything new with it.

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Report hails benefits of ‘socially integrating’ datacentres into local communities

Datacentre developers should be doing more to ensure local communities are reaping the full benefits that having a server farm on their doorstep can bring, according to a report by engineering firm Hoare Lea.

The company’s DC society: putting community into datacentre thinking report makes the case for developments to become more socially integrated with the communities around them because – as things stand – datacentres are something that is “often done to local communities, not by local communities”.

As detailed in the report: “This is because there is no agreed blueprint or roadmap on what a socially conscious datacentre looks like.” And this is wrong because datacentres have the potential to bring multiple benefits to local communities, beyond simply creating jobs for residents during the construction and operation phases of their development, the report stated.

To this point, datacentres have the “potential to improve health outcomes, create jobs, support research centres and draw in high-value industries” for the benefit of local residents, the report continued.

“This means that datacentre developers have a responsibility to work with other stakeholders to create a positive impact on society, beyond data buildings and campuses,” said Derek Main, director of datacentre and mission critical at Hoare Lea, in the introduction to the report.

At the same time, developers are likely to favour setting up shop in locations where the local community is supportive of what they are trying to do. However, securing that support will be difficult to achieve without spelling out the benefits to local citizens that a datacentre development can bring.

“Datacentres will locate elsewhere to countries and regions where there is less resistance and where they are more welcome,” the report stated. “The lack of a direct community dividend can make datacentre developments untenable.”

Examples shared in the report of local benefits that could be generated by encouraging developers to forge closer ties with the surrounding communities include schemes where the waste heat from datacentres are reused within neighbouring housing developments, community buildings or vertical farm setups.

The sites could also offer discounted data access for research institutions, such as universities or NHS organisations, or bring in economic benefits by acting as lure for other digitally minded businesses to move into the area, the report added.

“Datacentre developments can be beacons, catalysts and nodes for social and economic gains if fully realised,” the report stated. “This type of infrastructure can also supercharge communities that embrace them.”

The report features input from several datacentre industry market stakeholders, as well as sociology experts to establish how datacentres could be more socially integrated into local communities.

“Datacentres do not need to be pitted in competition with local people for access to resources – they can enable other opportunities for people instead,” said Main.

Paul Hanna, head of societal impacts at Hoare Lea, said the contents of the report champions the importance of large-scale infrastructure developers taking time to understand a communities’ needs, which he describes as a “crucial part” of the planning process such projects.

“Alongside the technology, security, and energy-efficiency, datacentres would benefit greatly by being designed with societal insight,” Hanna continued. “If datacentre developers and owners opt into a social contract with their neighbours all parties can benefit.”

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macOS 15.4 RC now available with four major features

Apple nears the end of macOS 15.4 beta testing with its RC build for developers. This version brings Apple Intelligence improvements and is a bit more feature-packed than the previous macOS 15.3 update. Here’s everything we know so far about macOS Sequoia’s latest update.

There are two main Apple Intelligence features landing on macOS 15.4 that are currently in beta testing:

  • All-new Mail experience: Mail is introducing new ways for users to manage their inboxes. On-device categorization organizes and sorts incoming emails into Primary for personal and time-sensitive emails, Transactions for confirmations and receipts, Updates for news and social notifications, and Promotions for marketing emails and coupons. Mail also features a new digest view that pulls together all of the relevant emails from a business, allowing users to quickly scan for what’s important at the moment.
  • New Apple Intelligence languages: Apple is adding Chinese, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, and localized English for Singapore and India to Apple Intelligence.

In addition to these changes, Apple just added seven new emojis to the macOS 15.4 RC. The Unicode Consortium introduced these figures last May in beta. So far, the new emojis expected for iOS 18 include a face with bags under the eyes, a fingerprint, a leafless tree, a root vegetable, a harp, a shovel, and splatter.

Still, if you don’t care that much about emojis anymore, Apple now lets you create your own with Genmoji. With macOS 15.4 RC, Apple tweaked the Genmoji button on the keyboard so it’s more easily discoverable, even though they’re only considered emojis on Apple’s platforms.

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Finally, the company announced that lossless support is coming to AirPods Max with macOS 15.4. Still, it’s unclear if Mac users can try this feature today.

Alongside macOS 15.4 RC, Apple has also seeded the release candidate versions of iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, tvOS 18.4, visionOS 2.4, and watchOS 11.4. BGR will let you know if we discover anything new on these upcoming software updates.

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visionOS 2.4 RC brings these Apple Intelligence features and more

After a mild visionOS 2.3 update, Apple is nearing the end of visionOS 2.4 beta testing with its RC. This upcoming software update, among other new features, readies support for Apple Intelligence.

Apple Intelligence has been available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices with A17 Pro or M chipsets for a few months. Now, it’s making its way to Apple Vision Pro, which is more than capable of running Apple Intelligence capabilities with the M2 chip and 16GB of RAM.

These are some of the features available with visionOS 2.4 RC:

  • Writing Tools: Users can rewrite, proofread, and summarize text nearly everywhere they write, including Mail, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps;
  • Image Playground: Users can create playful images in seconds, choosing from Animation, Illustration, or Sketch. This app is built right into apps like Messages and is also available in a dedicated app;
  • Memories in Photos: Users can create stories they want to see just by typing a description. Apple Intelligence will pick out the best photos and videos based on the description, craft a storyline with chapters based on themes identified from the photos, and arrange them into a movie with its own narrative arc;
  • Clean Up tool: This Photos app feature can identify and remove distracting objects in the background of a photo without accidentally altering the subject;
  • Siri: Users type to Siri and switch between text and voice to communicate with Siri in whatever way feels right for the moment.
  • ChatGPT integration: When you feel Apple Intelligence isn’t enough, you can allow ChatGPT to access Writing Tools and other features for a better response.

Even though better Apple Intelligence capabilities have been delayed, including the long-awaited personalized Siri, it’s nice to have the platform finally available on Apple Vision Pro, ahead of its rumored packed visionOS 3 update.

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In addition to Apple Intelligence, visionOS 2.4 RC introduces Spatial Gallery, an app that features spatial photos, videos, and panoramas curated by Apple for Vision Pro. There’s also a new Apple Vision Pro for iPhone that users can take advantage of to queue apps and games to download, discover new content, and more. Guest User has also been revamped so Apple Vision Pro owners can customize everything from their iPhone or iPad.

Alongside visionOS 2.4 RC, Apple is also releasing the release candidate versions of iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, macOS 15.4, watchOS 11.4, and tvOS 18.4. We’ll let you know if we find anything new with them.

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tvOS 18.4 and watchOS 11.4 RC available with new emojis

Apple is nearing the end of its upcoming operating systems beta testing, including watchOS 11.4 and tvOS 18.4. At this moment, only one main feature—seven new emojis—has been confirmed for watchOS 11.4 RC. Besides that, we expect a few tweaks for Apple Watch and Apple TV users with tvOS 18.4 RC.

As mentioned above, watchOS 11.4 RC added new emojis. Back in May, Unicode previewed seven new emojis, including a face with bags under the eyes, a fingerprint, a leafless tree, a root vegetable, a harp, a shovel, and splatter.

With watchOS 10.4, Apple added the following figures: Mushroom, phoenix, lime, broken chain, and shaking heads. In addition, 18 people and body emojis were added, with the option to face them in either direction. With that update, Apple also added Siri improvements, which we could see again. Since Apple Intelligence is unavailable for Apple Watch users, it shouldn’t stop the company from improving its personal assistant on the watch.

For tvOS 18.4, there are two main features we are still waiting for:

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  • New screensavers: Besides Snoopy screensavers, Apple promised another option for its Shows and Movies. During tvOS 18.2 beta testing, MacRumors found references to two other screensavers, but they have been removed on the following tvOS 18.3 beta; it’s unclear if Apple will bring new screensavers or if it’s already saving them for tvOS 19;
  • Robot vacuum support: While it was rumored to arrive later last year, Apple postponed this feature. It’s possible that tvOS 18.4 finally adds it.

Besides those features, watchOS 11.4 and tvOS 18.4 RC seem light on features. We also don’t know any rumors about the company’s focus on watchOS 12 and tvOS 19, even though there are reports that Apple plans to revamp its smart home offering with an Amazon Echo Show-like device, a doorbell ring with Face ID, and more.

Alongside watchOS 11.4 and tvOS 18.4 rc, Apple also seeded the release candidate versions of iOS 18.4, iPadOS 18.4, macOS 15.4, and visionOS 2.4.

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Our data, our decisions, our AI future: why we need an AI Regulation Bill

There were many consequences of the extraordinary timing of last July’s General Election.  One was that my AI Regulation Bill, which had made its way through all stages in the House of Lords and was just about to go to the Commons, was stopped in its tracks. Almost a year later, a new government and another Parliament has provided the opportunity to reintroduce my AI Bill, as I did last week.

If the need for artificial intelligence (AI) regulation was pressing in November 2023, when I first brought my Bill to bear, that need is now well past urgent and, it seems, even further from fruition.

How the sands have shifted, both domestically and internationally.  A UK government, keen on AI regulation while in opposition, slated an AI Bill in the King’s Speech last summer. Now, some eight months later, there is still no sign of a Bill and what appears to be an increasing reluctance to do anything much until they have squared it with the US. 

Making the case for regulation

At the Paris AI Action Summit earlier this year, a declaration for inclusive and sustainable AI was signed by international participants, although both the UK and US decided not to put their pens to that paper. 

Further, the AI Safety Institute has been renamed the AI Security Institute signalling a definite shift towards cyber security rather than a broader focus on “safety” that would include mitigating risks associated with societal impacts of AI models

All of this makes the case – the more than urgent case – for UK AI regulation. It seems we still have to slay that falsehood which recurs with tedious inevitability – that you can have innovation or regulation but you can’t have both. This is a false dichotomy. The choice is not between innovation or regulation. The challenge is to design right-sized regulation – a challenge that has become much more pronounced in the digital age.

With no current AI-specific regulation, it is us, as consumers, creatives and citizens who find ourselves exposed to the technologies Lord Chris Holmes

Every learning from history informs us, right-sized regulation is good for citizen, consumer, creative, innovator, and investor. We all know bad regulation – sure, there’s some of that around but that’s bad regulation, that in no sense says to us regulation of itself is bad. 

Take the UK approach to open banking as an illustration, replicated by over 60 jurisdictions right around the world.  A determined, thought-through regulatory intervention created in the UK – good for consumer, good for innovator and investor.

We know how to get right-sized regulation, well, right. This could be no more important than when it comes to AI, a suite of technologies with such potentially positively transforming opportunities – economic, social, psychological.  All potentially positive if we regulate it right.

A regulatory approach

My attempt to design a flexible, principles-based, outcomes-focused and inputs-understood, regulatory approach for AI is set out in the provisions of the Bill.

First, an AI Authority.  Don’t think of a huge bureaucratic burdensome behemoth – not a bit of it. We need an agile, right-touch, horizontally focused, small “r” regulator, intended to range across all existing regulators to assess their capacity and competency to address the opportunities and challenges AI affords.  Through this, crucially, to identify the gaps where there exists no regulator or regulatory cover, recruitment being one obvious example. 

The AI Authority would stand as the champion and custodian of the principles set out for voluntary consideration in the previous government’s whitepaper – those principles, put into statute through this Bill.

The Bill would also establish AI responsible officers, to the extent that any business which develops, deploys or uses AI must have a designated AI officer. The AI responsible officer would have to ensure the safe, ethical, unbiased and non-discriminatory use of AI by the business and to ensure, so far as reasonably practicable, that data used by that business in any AI technology is unbiased. 

Again, don’t think unnecessarily bureaucratic and burdensome. Proportionality prevails and we already have a well-established and well-understood path for reporting through adding to the provisions set out in the Companies Act.

With no current AI-specific regulation, it is us, as consumers, creatives and citizens who find ourselves exposed to the technologies. Clear, effective labelling, as provided for in the Bill, would hugely help. 

It holds that, any person supplying a product or service involving AI must give customers clear and unambiguous health warnings, labelling and opportunities to give or withhold informed consent in advance. Technologies already exist to enable such labelling.

Similarly, the Bill supports our creatives through intellectual property and copyright protection. No AI business should be able to simply gobble up others property without consent and, rightly, remuneration.

Public engagement

The most important provisions in the Bill are those around the question of public engagement. The Bill requires the government to “implement a programme for meaningful, long-term public engagement”. It is only through such engagement that we are likely to be able to move forward together, cognisant of the risks and mitigations, rationally optimistic as to the opportunities. 

When the Warnock inquiry was established to do just this as IVF was being developed in the 1980s, we had the luxury of time. The inquiry was set up in 1982 and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act came into force in 1991.

Technologies, not least AI, are developing so rapidly we have to act faster. The technologies themselves offer some of the solution, enabling real-time ongoing public engagement in a manner not possible even a few years ago. If we don’t address this, the likely outcome is that many will fail to avail themselves of the advantages while simultaneously being saddled with the downsides, sharp at best – at extreme, existential.

To conclude, we need regulation – cross-sector AI regulation for citizen, consumer, creative, innovator, investor.  We must make this a reality and bring to life, for all our lives, that uniting truth – our data, our decisions, our AI futures.

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