Is the UK about to ban running LLMs locally?
The UK government is targetting the use of AI to generate illegal imagery, which of course is a good thing, but the wording seems like any kind of AI tool run locally can be considered illegal, as it has the *potential* of generating questionable content. Here's a quote from the news:
"The Home Office says that, to better protect children, the UK will be the first country in the world to make it illegal to possess, create or distribute AI tools designed to create child sexual abuse material (CSAM), with a punishment of up to five years in prison." They also mention something about manuals that teach others how to use AI for these purposes.
It seems to me that any uncensored LLM run locally can be used to generate illegal content, whether the user wants to or not, and therefore could be prosecuted under this law. Or am I reading this incorrectly?
And is this a blueprint for how other countries, and big tech, can force people to use (and pay for) the big online AI services?