United Kingdom: Issued Guidance on Introduction to AI Assurance

On 12 February 2024, the UK Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology adopted a Guidance document entitled 'Introduction to AI Assurance'. The Guidance aims to help organisations understand how AI assurance techniques can be used to ensure the safe and responsible development and deployment of AI systems. It defines 'AI Assurance' as a means of assessing and communicating the trustworthiness of AI systems. The Guidance introduces important concepts and terms related to AI assurance, and situates them within the broader AI governance landscape. It provides an introduction to assurance mechanisms and global technical standards, enabling industry and regulators to better understand how to build and deploy responsible AI systems. Further, it provides a toolkit that provides a framework for collecting, assessing and communicating qualitative and quantitative data on the functioning of AI systems, including performance, functionality and potential impacts.