Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 3:45 pm on 3 February 2026.
Lord Tarassenko
Crossbench
3:45,
3 February 2026
My Lords, the second International AI Safety Report is being published today. It is a scientific assessment, guided by 100 experts from 30 different countries and chaired by Yoshua Bengio, one of the three so-called godfathers of AI. A key finding is that general-purpose AI capabilities are improving more quickly than anticipated. Does the Minister agree that it is now time for DSIT to set up a commission or working group of experts, convened jointly by the AI Security Institute and the Alan Turing Institute, to investigate the potential impact of this increasing rate of progress towards general-purpose superintelligent AI?
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.