Director Weekly With ministers out in force at London Tech Week, we take stock of the key policy announcements from recent days
London Tech Week may take the capital’s name – and be dominated by companies based in London and the South East and indeed internationally – but in reality, it is a national event that is both a showcase for the UK’s vibrant tech sector, and a forum for conversations about how national tech and innovation policy can drive growth.
As such, government ministers were out in force. That, in itself, is a signal of how seriously the government takes its AI agenda, from the Prime Minister down. While the press focused on his words on children’s online safety, Starmer was also at pains to remind delegates that Britain is the third-largest technology economy in the world. UK firms have raised close to half of all European investment in tech this year, he pointed out.
The announcement of a £2 billion investment by AMD was taken as welcome evidence of business’s faith in the UK. Indeed, the emphasis on encouraging private investment was echoed in other speeches, including from Liz Kendall, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology; Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Business and Trade; and Kanishka Narayan, the Minister for AI.
Aside from promises of a new era of “Brit-maxxing” -backing UK-based AI, that is – one of the most important developments was the new £1.1bn UK AI Hardware Plan. It includes £750m for a new AI supercomputer, and a £150m commitment by the British Business Bank to support UK hardware firms.
While some of that funding has been announced previously, other announcements reflected truly new steps forward, reflecting a helpful broadening of the government’s approach. As I’ve noted here before, government policy to date has focused largely on AI infrastructure and ecosystems, but this week saw new impetus for grappling with the challenges of AI adoption and looming questions about how AI will affect the economy (read: jobs) in the years ahead.
Perhaps most significantly, the Nobel Prize-winning MIT Sloan professor Simon Johnson will chair the government’s new AI Economics Institute. Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and Microsoft have signed up to support the Institute and are forming a working group to accelerate its research.
This is important, because the Institute will help generate much-needed analytical insight about AI’s real-world impacts. Given the unhealthy polarisation of debate about AI we often see in the mainstream, that injection of evidence is to be welcomed.
Johnson will also chair a Pro-Worker AI Adoption Prize, putting the spotlight on AI adoption that benefits workers, reflecting widespread nervousness about jobs and AI’s societal impact. In similar vein, it was announced that more than 30 major companies, including BT, Rolls Royce, Accenture and EDF, have signed up to share data and insights on how they’re using AI. Meanwhile, DSIT will convene a new AI Assurance Stakeholder Consortium, to be led by BCS.
Plus, there was an update on the AI Skills Boost programme, of which the IoD is a strategic partner. It has already delivered 1.7 million courses, as the government aims to upskill 10 million UK workers by 2030.
Finally, the IoD is supporting a new research project by the Mayor of London’s AI and Jobs Taskforce and the Institute for the Future of Work. The survey is seeking to understand whether and how AI and related technologies are beginning to affect job quality, skills, recruitment and workforce development across London’s economy. Find out more and complete the 10-minute survey here.
Of course, a single week can’t resolve every challenge around AI policy. There is much more to be done to join up policymaking across government, for example – and to strengthen governance and organisational readiness for AI across the economy. But the flurry of announcements around London Tech Week has moved us forward in some useful ways.
About the author
Dr. Erin Young leads the IoD’s policy, strategy and thought leadership work on technology, science and innovation.
Before joining the IoD, Erin was Project Co-Lead and Research Fellow in Public Policy at The Alan Turing Institute, the UK’s National Institute for Data Science and AI, where her work influenced the UK’s National AI Strategy and AI Opportunities Action Plan. Previously, Erin held positions at the United Nations (UN IIEP-UNESCO) in Paris, Kantar/WPP in London, MediaX at Stanford University, and Thomson Reuters in New York City, across policy, strategic communications, research, stakeholder engagement and government affairs.
Erin sits on the Strategy Steering Board for the City of London Corporation’s Women Pivoting to Digital Taskforce, the Advisory Board for the APPG on Entrepreneurship, and advises the Hg Foundation on AI, skills and inequalities. She is frequently featured in high-profile media and presents across business and government including the European Parliament, GCHQ, KKR and the UK Science and Technology Network (FCDO/DSIT) at British Embassies and Consulates globally.
Erin holds a BA in Classics from the University of Cambridge, an MSc (Distinction) in Education (Learning and Technology) from the University of Oxford, a PGC in International Business Practice, Finance and Organisational Behaviour from St Mary’s University, and a Ph.D. (D.Phil) in Science and Technology Studies (STS) from the University of Oxford.
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