Artificial intelligence faces different regulations in Northern Ireland and Britain as a new EU law is phased in from next month, just as the UK attempts to step up its global AI ambitions. The UK’s exit from the EU left Northern Ireland with continued access to the bloc’s market for goods and subject to some EU laws. It put a politically sensitive customs border in the Irish Sea, which will now also extend to some digital operations under the EU’s AI Act. The latest example of post-Brexit regulatory divergence follows differences between the UK and EU over permitted levels of arsenic in baby food and the size of fonts on chemical products and comes as the UK government on Monday announced a major investment in its AI capability. Only about 1 per cent of the UK’s AI businesses are based in Northern Ireland but the region has dynamic software, fintech, healthcare and digital services industries which use AI in their products or operations and could find themselves covered by the new EU law. “I don’t think people have really woken up to the fact that the digital border is going to be significant,” said Steve Aiken, a senior member of the Ulster Unionist Party which, like other pro-UK parties, is opposed to the customs border in the Irish Sea that Brexit created.

Full report : AI will face different rules in Northern Ireland and Britain as the EU’s AI Act takes effect next month, potentially causing friction in the UK’s tech sector.