Breakfast Session 1

Diverging AI regulation in the EU and the UK

What implications for health and future relations?

Organised by Nuffield Trust, supported by The Health Foundation

The EU’s AI Act is a globally unprecedented move to provide comprehensive regulation for artificial intelligence, with far-reaching implications for safety and oversight on the cutting edge of medical technology and administration, and many questions remaining about its implementation and interpretation. The UK government has so far chosen the opposite approach, relying on existing tools to assess and approve AI in each domain and hoping for a competitive advantage from a lighter regulatory burden. This is a rare example of intentional health policy divergence between the UK and the EU since Brexit, which has nevertheless had wider impacts across a range of issues including workforce and medicines. With a new Parliament and Commission in the EU, and a new government in the UK, now is a pivotal moment to rebuild bridges – or for the divergence in AI regulation to be the first step in a deepening divergence.

In this breakfast session, we will look at the implications of the different approaches to AI regulation in the EU and the UK, and explore how they will position the EU and the UK compared to other jurisdictions. More broadly, we will have an open discussion about the potential scenarios for EU:UK relations and their implications for health, and what emerges as potential avenues for co-operation and cooperation between the EU and the UK in relation to health.