MPs and Lords call for new law to address AI threat to human rights

Image source, Getty ImagesByPatrick JacksonPublished14 September 2026, 04:23 BSTUpdated 3 hours agoA cross-party group of MPs and peers has identified human rights risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI), arguing existing laws are ill-equipped to address the technology's rapid growth.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) published a report calling for a new bill on AI to "address the scale and seriousness" of such threats.

"Nowhere in the world, including the UK, has a current legislative and regulatory approach to AI that is fit for purpose," said Labour MP and committee chair Alex Sobel.

Labour education minister Georgia Gould said AI was creating opportunities but that it was critical the government was "responding to those risks" posed by the technology.

In a summary of its 100-page report, the JCHR argued AI has been responsible for numerous abuses of human rights, citing examples including the use of AI to create sexualised images of women and girls, and scanning people's faces without their consent.

The JCHR has advocated for the creation of a "single, independent AI oversight body... on a statutory basis", saying the current legal framework is "fragmented and difficult to navigate", "leaving gaps in protection".

The report goes on to call for "more demanding obligations for higher risk AI systems and models" at all stages of the "AI lifecycle".

It continues: "Some uses of AI should be prohibited outright because they are incompatible with human rights. Potential areas for action include subliminal techniques, and inappropriate use of profiling or biometric data."

The committee's chair said: "AI is heralded as an unprecedented era of technological development with the potential to transform our lives for better or for worse."

"It is moving with such speed and complexity that its impact is hard to accurately predict. What is clear is that at present we are unprepared to deal with its consequences however potentially dire they may be."

The JCHR's 12 members are drawn from both Houses of Parliament and they currently include MPs and peers from the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties.

Jacob Coxon, an AI researcher who quit Anthropic, told the BBC this weekend that staff developing the systems were "genuinely frightened" for the future of humanity.