The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has welcomed the government’s proposed AI rules but called for more clarity before it goes ahead with its regulation plans.

The government's Whitepaper said that AI would not be regulated by one entity, instead it will come under the supervision of several existing regulators, including the ICO.

The ICO said that while it supports the White Paper’s plans to “empower responsible innovation and sustainable economic growth”, it wants the government to “prioritise research into the type of guidance that a wide range of AI developers would value” before rolling out the new rules.

The public body said that it is likely that sector or use case-specific guidance would be more useful to AI developers than joined-up guidance on each non-statutory principle.

It said that collaborative guidance could be “too high level” and require too large a degree of interpretation by developers to be able to provide practical guidance on a specific issue that a business faces. It added that research could help to bring to light the most helpful focus for future guidance.

The government's White Paper advised those deploying AI technology to be able to explain the decision-making processes of AI systems in an “appropriate level of detail” and highlighted the importance of creating AI technology that doesn’t discriminate against individuals or create unfair commercial outcomes within the scope of existing UK laws.

"We agree an approach to AI governance should be context-specific, risk based, coherent, proportionate and adaptable," said the ICO. "We support the development of a set of principles for the regulation of AI and stand ready to support the Government in achieving the delicate balance of improving coherence while accounting for the intricacies of specific domains and mandates."

Bringing regulation under several regulators instead of creating a new oversight entity for AI could come as a blow to some experts who say that AI should come under the regulation of a specific authority, while champions of AI innovation will be pleased with the government’s less formal approach.

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