EXCLUSIVE: Dame Chi Onwurah, chair of the Commons’ tech committee, said online companies are creating a ‘digital twin’ of users to persuade people ‘to watch a particular video or believe some dodgy news report’
A senior Labour MP and tech expert has issued an urgent warning over tech giants creating digital replicas of Brits that are used to exploit, groom, target and mis-sell things to them.
Dame Chi Onwurah, chair of the Commons’ tech committee, said online companies are creating a “digital twin” of a user to persuade them “to watch a particular video or believe some dodgy news report”. Concerns have been raised about tech firms or AI chatbots collecting vast data about a person so they can essentially create a digital replica of them that can influence their behaviour.
The Labour MP, who worked at Ofcom before entering Parliament in 2010, will this week present legislation to ban “digital twins” being created of users without their permission. She raised particular concerns about kids being manipulated by clever digital versions of themselves.
Her Ten-Minute Rule Bill – a mechanism that allows a backbench MP to make a case for a new Bill in a speech – outlines how tech platforms and AI chatbots make models of individuals based on hundreds or thousands or millions of data points from friends, to content likes, to purchases, to streaming preferences.
She told The Mirror: “Who is best able to persuade you to do or say something if not an automated version of yourself? It is particularly worrying when it’s kids who are the target, and these days kids are exposed to their tech literally from the cradle – an AI camera in their cot, a ‘smart toy’ on their pillow, chat bots which listen to what they say, smart phones teaming with apps to track every move.
“The automated versions of your kids will grow with them and in my committee I have heard some of the tragic consequences of online grooming by algorithms and chatbots. . A boy persuaded to kick himself. A girl fed more and more extreme dieting advice until she literally wasted away. My bill will expressly protect children from digital twinning.”
Dame Chi continued: “The stealth-twinning of individuals means you can be exploited, groomed, targeted and mis-sold – by a digital version of yourself.
“AI models are bringing incredible benefits from cancer diagnosis to weather mapping. But given no one has the right to impersonate you for gain, impersonating a person’s preferences to reap revenues or achieve social and political goals should not be legal. This Bill will establish the principle that there is only one me, for everyone.”
The MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West’s bill, which will be presented to the Commons on Wednesday, will include a principles-based definition of a “digital twin” which covers any algorithms or models which includes people’s preferences. It is expected that this would also have implications for AI deepfakes and copyright exemptions.
An opposing speech may also be made before the House decides whether or not the Bill should be introduced. If the MP is successful, the Bill is taken to have its first reading.