Since its inception in 2019, the UK Government’s AI Council has provided guidance on AI policy and how it intersects with national security, defence, data ethics, skills, and regulation.

However, the AI Council’s Terms of Reference established that members would sit on the Council for a fixed-term period of up to three years, and the terms of its members are coming to an end, according to the government’s latest update, published July 7.

In lieu, the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) is establishing a “wider group of experts” to advise on a range of issues relevant to the Department, including artificial intelligence. It’s been said that the expertise of former AI Council members will still be drawn from within this wider group.

Further, the government said that the wider group of expertise will “complement the recently established Foundation Model Taskforce,” which is being set up to help further the UK’s capabilities in “safe and reliable” foundation models and has £100m in initial funding behind it.

During the group’s last meeting, Chloe Smith, the Secretary of State for DSIT thanked the Council members and the Chair, Tabitha Goldstaub, for their contributions and the “key role the Council has played in the development of the UK’s early strategic approach to AI policy.”

As part of the government’s AI regulation white paper, published in March of this year, it mentioned that the government would “review the role of the AI Council.”

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Last month, ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair and ex-Leader of the Opposition William Hague released a report titled A New National Purpose: AI Promises a World-Leading Future of Britain. As part of the report, a call was made for the dissolution of the AI Council, and for advice to be sought elsewhere.

“While industry figures have predicted some advances and privately warned of major risks, existing government channels have failed to anticipate the trajectory of progress. For example, neither the key advance of transformers nor its application in LLMs were picked up by advisory mechanisms until ChatGPT was headline news,” mentioned the report.

Among its recommendations, the report suggested that: “Government should comprehensively overhaul its approach to seeking advice on this technology. This should include dissolving the AI Council while prioritising meaningful input from leading global tech companies.”

Who, exactly, will make up the “wider group of expertise” going forward has yet to be announced.