The UK government has announced a series of measures to support open source AI developers with funding, mentoring, and a direct line of communication into government.

A new Open-Source AI Builder Fund will see more than £500,000 worth of compute - 160,000 GPU-hours of processing power from the UK’s AI Research Resource - set aside for innovators to turn prototypes into AI tools that improve public services from libraries to the NHS.

An Open-Source AI Builder Mentoring Scheme will pair up the winners of a recent Hack for Impact hackathon with experts from the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (i.AI), the government’s in-house AI team, to help the best ideas become working public tools.

Held in partnership with Nvidia, the hackathon saw hundreds of open source AI developers from across the UK build tools to tackle challenges across public services and city infrastructure, using open data from the City of London.

A new Open-Source AI Dev Board, meanwhile, will give ten UK-based developers under the age of 30 a direct line into government, so they can influence how AI is used and developed.

Chaired by AI Minister Kanishka Narayan, the board will convene a series of roundtables over the rest of this year.

"The best AI tools in the world won’t be built behind closed doors by a handful of companies. They’ll be built by people who ship code, share it, and let others make it better," said Narayan.

"We want those people choosing to build here in Britain. And we want them to know that this is a country that backs them to succeed."

Open source focus welcomed, but work still to be done

The government’s focus on open source AI is a welcomed move, according to Sopra Steria CTO Andy Whitehurst.

Recent analysis from OpenUK showed the UK’s community is growing at a nominal rate, with more than 38,000 UK-based developers now making at least one contribution to open source projects in Q1 2026 - a 7% year-on-year increase.

Whitehurst noted, however, that the UK tech industry still faces acute challenges in terms of marketing itself as a go-to destination.

"Targeted interventions like the builder fund and support programs are a positive step in helping projects move from prototype to real-world deployment, but economic uncertainty, constraints around data use, and the reality of a relatively small standalone market can still make the UK a harder proposition for some AI providers, particularly those that rely on large, diverse datasets or cross-border operations," he said.

Whitehurst added that if the UK wants to be a “true global AI leader” which attracts the best talent and supports its own “homegrown champions”, it needs to focus on three key foundations.

“Sovereignty, in terms of control over critical technology and data; scalability, so AI businesses can grow and adapt; and skills, to ensure a strong domestic talent pipeline,” he commented.

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The UK government is continuing its push to boost the country's AI infrastructure capabilities with a £1.1 billion plan to back home-grown chip firms.

The new AI Hardware Plan, announced by technology secretary Liz Kendall at London Tech Week, will see £750 million allocated for the development of a new national AI supercomputer.

This includes £400 million for next-generation AI chips, of which £150 million is an advanced commitment to buy novel chips from both existing British firms and innovative startups.

"AI is the defining currency of economic and hard power in today’s world and the countries that control the hardware behind it will hold the keys to the future," said Kendall.

"The UK is already a global leader in chip design, and I believe this is a race Britain can win. To do that, we must back more British AI – and that means investing in the chips, computing power and skilled people behind it."

The new national AI supercomputer will be one of the most advanced in the world when deployed in 2030, based on a heterogeneous mixed chip system using both proven and next-generation processors.

The government hopes to see British-designed chips used in the system, which will form part of the UK’s AI Research Resource for researchers, startups, and public services.

£150 million will go to buy next-generation inference chips, with a further £250 million for more specialized chips, Downing Street confirmed. An additional £120 million will fund a new AI Hardware Innovation Programme to help British companies design, develop, and test innovative novel chips.

At least £20 million will be used to expand the Scaling Inference Lab, delivered by ARIA and CommonAI, to help companies prove their technology, attract investment, and secure partnerships with global tech firms.

Elsewhere, £45 million has been pledged to build skills capabilities, including doctoral training and undergraduate bursaries to train more engineers, chip designers, and technicians.

Finally, a new fund led by Silicon Valley investors Playground Global and backed by up to £150 million from the British Business Bank - its biggest investment ever - will invest in UK-based AI hardware companies.

AI Hardware Plan welcomed by industry

The announcement by Kendall came after prime minister Keir Starmer announced a £400 million investment for specialist AI chip purchases.

The two announcements have been welcomed by industry stakeholders as a positive step toward bolstering the country’s infrastructure capabilities – a focus that will be vital if the country is to position itself as a leading AI economy in the future.

Andy McLean, CEO of the UK Semiconductor Centre (UKSC), said semiconductors are the “foundation on which AI is built”, adding that the UK has a “significant opportunity” to play a leading role in global research and development.

“The UK’s semiconductor strengths are well aligned to opportunities across the AI stack, and we are already seeing substantial private investment in UK semiconductor companies operating at the forefront of these technologies,” he said.

“It is encouraging to see the government matching that ambition with new investment and a clear focus on accelerating knowledge, skills, scale, and deployment."

Steve Brierley, CEO and founder of Riverlane, echoed McLean’s comments, noting that the focus on skills will be critical.

“The government's commitment to supporting high-growth technology companies recognizes that breakthrough innovation alone is not enough. Alongside access to capital and specialist skills, the government can play a powerful role as a smart buyer, helping to create markets, accelerate innovation and strengthen the wider technology ecosystem,” he said.

“Ensuring the UK has the infrastructure, talent and expertise to bring these capabilities together will be critical to ensuring the UK captures the full value of its investments and strengthens its position as a leader in advanced computing.”

Looking ahead, Brierley said the UK must adopt a “holistic view of the future of computing”, focusing on how high-performance computing (HPC), AI, and quantum technologies can work together effectively.

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The UK government is urging organizations to sign a Cyber Resilience Pledge to help strengthen defenses against surging cybersecurity threats.

Set to launch later this year, the pledge will see businesses commit to making cybersecurity a board-level responsibility, sign up to the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) free Early Warning Service, and require Cyber Essentials certification across their supply chains.

The pledge is aimed primarily at medium and large organizations, although the government said it encourages firms of all sizes to take part.

"As threats evolve, businesses of all sizes need to step up and take practical action now," said cybersecurity minister Baroness Lloyd.

"The Cyber Resilience Pledge is a clear call for companies to strengthen their defences, protect their customers and play their part in keeping the UK secure and competitive."

Ministers have already written directly to some of the UK’s leading companies inviting them to sign up to the Cyber Resilience Pledge, and are urging other organizations to review the requirements and commit to it themselves.

Around £90 million in funding has been allocated by the government to help organisations conduct reviews.

Cyber Resilience Pledge comes at a critical time

The announcement comes alongside new government figures showing that the UK’s cybersecurity sector grew 11% last year to £14.7 billion.

There are 438 new cybersecurity firms, bringing the total to 2,603, up 20% from 2,165 last year. In terms of investment, £184 million was raised across 47 deals within dedicated cyber firms in 2025.

The sector now employs the equivalent of 69,600 full-time workers, up 3% since last year, in an increase of around 2,300 jobs; and the total gross value added (GVA) for the sector has reached around £9.1 billion, an increase of 17% since last year.

"Cybersecurity is now fundamental to economic growth, job creation and the resilience of the services people rely on every day," said Baroness Lloyd.

"The UK has a world‑class cyber sector that is creating skilled jobs and protecting our economy – and government is doing more by investing in its own defenses, legislating to require more of essential services and setting clear national standards."

AI is raising the stakes in cyber

The announcement also comes as the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill makes its passage through Parliament, following the King’s Speech, and forms part of an increasing government focus on cybersecurity.

The government has also set up the AI Security Institute which it said provides the most advanced capability of any government in the world for understanding frontier AI systems.

The Institute, for example, recently looked at frontier models like Claude Mythos and GPT 5.5, with ministers warning that traditional cyber protections alone are no longer enough.

As AI accelerates the pace and scale of cyber attacks, it said, organizations must now invest in smarter, more resilient systems that can limit the impact of breaches and keep ahead of attackers – rather than constantly reacting after the damage is done.

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The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is tackling cyber risks head-on with a new vulnerability monitoring service (VMS) for government services.

The new service focuses primarily on weaknesses in the Domain Name System (DNS), which can allow attackers to redirect users to fraudulent sites, steal sensitive data, or take services offline entirely.

While weaknesses in government DNS records have previously gone unnoticed for up to two months, the VMS brings that down significantly – alerting users, giving practical guidance on how to fix the problem, and tracking progress until issues are resolved.

"Cyber attacks aren’t abstract threats — they delay NHS appointments, disrupt essential services, and put people’s most sensitive data at risk,” said minister for digital government Ian Murray.

When public services struggle it’s families, patients, and frontline workers that feel it.”

How does the Vulnerability Monitoring Service work?

The VMS continuously scans 6,000 UK public sector bodies, detecting around 1,000 different types of cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

According to Murray, the VMS has proven highly effective so far, helping to reduce the median time to fix domain-related vulnerabilities from 50 days to just eight - an 84% improvement.

Similarly, the median time to fix other cyber vulnerabilities has been cut from 53 days to 32.

The backlog of critical open domain-related vulnerabilities has also dropped by 75%, with around 400 confirmed vulnerabilities processed and resolved each month.

"The vulnerability monitoring service has transformed how quickly we can spot and fix weaknesses before they’re exploited so we can protect against that,” Murray commented.

“We’ve cut cyber attack fix times by 84% and reduced the backlog of critical issues by three quarters. And as the service expands to cover more types of cyber threats, fix times are falling there too."

Positive steps, but not far enough

Kevin Marriott, senior manager of cyber at Immersive, said the new service marks a step in the right direction for public sector cybersecurity, which has traditionally lagged behind the private sector due to a combination of factors.

"The public sector has always had an uphill task in fixing vulnerabilities quickly due to the scale of government networks and their interconnectivity, as well as limited budgets and small security teams that can’t always keep pace with the growing patch backlog," he said.

"It shows that reducing risk doesn’t require radical, wholesale changes but rather doing the fundamentals well. A strong vulnerability management strategy starts with clear visibility, an understanding of which are your key assets, what they do, their dependencies, who their owners are, and an accurate asset inventory."

Stephen Fewer, senior principal researcher at Rapid7, said the government could go further in bolstering security capabilities.

"A key focus for the government should be limiting the internet exposure of critical applications and management interfaces, ensuring they are never exposed to the public internet," he said.

"Government organizations such as the NHS have many network edge appliances, including VPNs and firewalls, that cyber criminals can exploit. Reducing the attack surface is the next best defence after remediating known weaknesses.”

New initiative looks to recruit cyber pros

The government has also launched a new Cyber Profession initiative, based in the North West and aimed at recruiting and training cyber professionals to further bolster government security capabilities.

A new dedicated Cyber Resourcing Hub will be established as part of the scheme to streamline recruitment and create a clear career framework aligned with UK Cyber Security Council professional standards.

It will also include a government Cyber Academy for training and development, a new apprenticeship scheme to build future talent, and structured career pathways to strengthen long-term capability across the public sector.

Wayne Cleghorn, cybersecurity and data protection partner at Excello Law, welcomed the launch, but noted this needs to be a sustained effort to ensure a steady flow of talent into the public sector.

"The UK National Audit Office's identification of a serious cybersecurity skills gap in government is being addressed by the announcement of a new cyber profession for government," he said.

"However, this must be more than a re-badging of existing activities. It must be serious and consistently measured. It must become deeply embedded in government information governance and data protection practices."

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There's huge uncertainty over the UK-US Tech Prosperity Deal, with reports that the US has pulled out.

The deal, signed in September, saw the two countries agreeing to establish joint R&D, and advance "pro-innovation AI policy frameworks". The plan also called for cooperation on quantum computing and nuclear energy.

At the time, US president Donald Trump said it would "ensure our countries lead the next great technological revolution side by side".

However, reports from the New York Times suggest that talks have stalled due to “broader disagreements”.

This is believed to be in part a reference to the UK's Digital Services Tax, levied at 2% on US tech giants including Google, Amazon, and Apple, and raising around £800 million per year.

Trump is reportedly not a fan of the Online Safety Act, which requires tech companies to protect users from harmful content.

According to the NYT, the US is also concerned about the Economic Prosperity Deal between the two countries. The MOU for the Technology Prosperity Deal made it dependent on “substantive progress” towards the Economic Prosperity Deal signed in May.

The US is reportedly unhappy with perceived trade barriers in sectors such as cars, pharmaceuticals, and steel.

The stalled talks on the deal may just be a tactic to put pressure on the UK, as implied by a statement on X by Trump's science adviser Michael Kratsios.

"In line with Section III of the US-UK Technology Prosperity Deal, we hope to resume work with the United Kingdom once the UK has made substantial progress in implementing its commitments under the Economic Prosperity Deal," he said.

"We look forward to continuing our productive collaboration across AI, quantum, nuclear, and other critical technology areas under the Deal."

Reports from the BBC on Tuesday noted that the deal is still very much alive and kicking. According to the broadcaster, the prime minister’s office said the UK remains in “active conversations with US counterparts at all levels of the government” on the deal.

Who benefits from the Tech Prosperity Deal?

The Tech Prosperity Deal has been widely seen as favorable to the US, Last month, experts told ITPro the agreement was a “strikingly unequal partnership” that allows big tech to expand its presence in the UK unchecked.

According to campaign group Global Justice Now, the UK should be wary of making any more concessions.

"For Trump, collaboration on trade and investment only appears possible if other countries give US corporate giants free reign over their economies – and give up their democratic right to regulate and tax them," said policy and campaigns manager Tim Bierley.

"The news that the US is seeking even more concessions should be a wake-up call for those in government who think we can appease our way out of tariff wars with Trump – the more we concede, the more corporate America will demand."

Broadly speaking, the tech industry is more favorable toward the deal. The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), which has called for the Digital Services Tax to be repealed, pointed out that other nations are scrapping similar taxes.

“The technology deal was good news for investment and innovation in both countries, and it is unfortunate that lack of progress in broader trade issues resulted in its implementation being suspended," said CCIA senior director Matthew Sinclair.

"The UK should do more to address barriers to trade in digital services, whether that is taxes that single out US multinationals or regulators wielding unprecedented powers without the guardrails that should protect companies against disproportionate or simply misguided attacks on their businesses.”

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The UK government is reportedly planning to back down on plans to force Apple to share user data.

Tulsi Gabbard, US director of national intelligence, confirmed the move in a post on X, revealing that Downing Street will withdraw plans which would see Apple required to provide a “back door” to access user data.

“Over the past few months, I’ve been working closely with our partners in the UK, alongside @POTUS and @VP, to ensure Americans’ private data remains private and our Constitutional rights and civil liberties are protected,” Gabbard wrote.

“As a result, the UK has agreed to drop its mandate for Apple to provide a “back door” that would have enabled access to the protected encrypted data of American citizens and encroached on our civil liberties.”

The decision to back down follows a months-long war of words between Apple and the UK government over the tech giant’s Advanced Data Protection (ADP) tool, a feature that uses end-to-end encryption and allows users to protect personal data.

The feature even prevents Apple from accessing personal information.

In December last year, the government filed a format notice demanding that Apple grant authorities the right to access encrypted data. This was applicable to users globally, and not specifically in the UK.

The order sparked widespread criticism at the time from privacy experts and industry stakeholders. Legal experts warned that the move could harm industry perception of the UK, noting that the country would “no longer be seen as a safe destination for personal data”.

In response, Apple refused to comply and announced plans to remove access to ADP for UK users. The tech giant began legal proceedings to challenge the demand.

“As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services and we never will,” the company said in a statement at the time.

Apple u-turn “hugely significant” for UK government

The UK government is yet to confirm the decision to back down, however, the rumored decision has been welcomed by security experts.

Charlotte Wilson, head of enterprise at Check Point Software, said the decision to withdraw the demand is “hugely significant”.

“Once you create a master key to encrypted data, it is not just governments that can use it,” she said. “Criminal groups and hostile states will try to exploit it too.”

Wilson added that breaking encryption “not only weakens privacy, but also weakens security for everyone.”

The Apple order was issued under the Investigatory Powers Act, which means orders issued to other companies are essentially shrouded in secrecy.

Wilson said there are still concerns that these powers “remain on the statute books”, meaning that future governments may attempt a similar move in the future.

“Even if this particular demand has been withdrawn, the Investigatory Powers Act still allows future governments to try again,” she said.

“That leaves citizens, campaigners, and businesses in a state of uncertainty about whether the tools that protect their data could be undermined at any point.”

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The UK government is teaming up with Meta to launch a new $1 million program aimed at bringing AI engineering experts on board to develop tools for the public sector.

Led by the Alan Turing Institute, the new Open-Source AI Fellowship will allow engineers and developers to apply for a 12-month “tour of duty” with the government to develop tools across an array of public sector use-cases.

This could include the creation of AI-powered language translation tools, Downing Street revealed, or solutions that use construction planning data to speed up housing development approvals processes.

Elsewhere, the government said participants in the scheme could also help expand “Humphrey”, a suite of AI tools used by civil servants to reduce manual toil and improve productivity.

The fellowships will begin in January 2026, with applicants urged to register their interest ahead of applications going live next week.

Notably, the program will primarily focus on using open source AI models such as Meta’s Llama 3.5 range to create new solutions.

Technology secretary Peter Kyle said the program aims to develop AI solutions that are “open, practical, and built for public good”.

“It’s about delivery, not just ideas - creating real tools that help government work better for people,” he said.

Kyle noted that the government has “already seen the potential” of using AI in public sector use cases, particularly with Caddy.

Developed with Citizens Advice and now used by Cabinet Office teams, the AI customer service assistant is being used at six Citizen’s Advice centers across the country.

The tool helps solve queries for staff on a range of issues, from managing debt to seeking legal advice or information on consumer rights. So far, the tool has proved beneficial for workers, with early testing showing it can halve response times.

“The Fellowship will help scale that kind of impact across government, and develop sovereign capabilities where the UK must lead, like national security and critical infrastructure,” Kyle added.

Joel Kaplan, chief global affairs officer at Meta, said harnessing open source AI tools has the potential to “transform the delivery of public services” - a sentiment echoed by Dr Jean Innes, CEO of the Alan Turing Institute.

“Open source technologies have great potential to help government increase productivity, support decision-making and deliver better public services,” Innes said.

“These fellowships will offer an innovative way to match AI experts with the real world challenges our public services are facing.”

Drawing on big tech support

The announcement comes just days after Kyle told attendees at a London conference the government plans to draw upon big tech companies to help drive innovation across public services.

Speaking at the Google Cloud Summit London, Kyle revealed the government is working with the hyperscaler to tackle long-running problems with legacy technology across the public sector, describing legacy systems as a “ball and chain”.

As part of the move, the government will work alongside Google Cloud to migrate services to the cloud. This, he noted, will allow public sector organizations to easily adopt cutting-edge technologies and drive efficiency.

Kyle has been an outspoken advocate of closer collaboration with big tech since the Labour government came into office in 2024 – and the Google Cloud conference saw him double down on this approach.

“My message to tech companies is clear: bring us your best ideas, bring us your best tech, and bring it at the best price,” he told attendees. “And in return, you’ll receive access to the biggest client in the country. One that will be increasingly intelligent and increasingly digital.”

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The UK government has lost over 2,000 laptops, phones, and tablets within the last two years, according to a freedom of information disclosure.

Figures first published by The Guardian show that, combined, the lost devices are worth more than £1 million, but experts told ITPro that the real issue is the cybersecurity risk they pose.

Devices reported as either lost or stolen from the Department for Work and Pensions totaled 240 missing laptops and 124 missing phones in 2024.

The Ministry of Defence recorded 103 missing laptops and 387 missing phones, while the Cabinet Office is said to have lost or had stolen 66 laptops and 124 phones.

Missing devices were recorded across 18 Whitehall departments and public authorities in the last year, which included the Bank of England, HM Treasury, and the Home Office.

The Bank of England told The Guardian that it “takes the security of devices and data very seriously and has suitable protection in place”.

ITPro has approached the UK government for comment, but in a statement given to the publication, said: “We take the security of government devices extremely seriously, which is why items such as laptops and mobile phones are always encrypted so any loss does not compromise security.”

Lost government devices are a security nightmare

While the financial cost of this loss is substantial, the greater concern is the cybersecurity risk presented by the loss or theft of these devices, according to James Castro-Edwards, counsel for multinational law firm Arnold & Porter

“Sophisticated hackers can break into such devices, potentially opening a ‘back door’ to government departments,” Castro-Edwards told ITPro. “This is particularly concerning when hackers are not only organized criminal gangs, but hostile nation states.

“Where the affected government department handles sensitive information, for instance, the Ministry of Defence or the security services, this creates a huge national security risk.”

Castro-Edwards said it’s crucial that all organizations implement “rigorous technical security measures” such as encryption and strong password protection to ensure devices remain secure.

Stolen devices play a crucial role in the cyber criminal economy, according to Boris Cipot at cybersecurity firm, Black Duck, underlining the dangers posed by lost government hardware.

"Stolen hardware is often ‘refurbished’ and then sold as used devices,” he explained. “This is because modern encryption software on these devices makes it difficult to access the data stored on hard drives or other storage media.”

“However, even the most advanced encryption is ineffective if the encryption key or user password is weak,” Cipot added.

With this in mind, Cipot said organizations should not solely rely on the “technical capabilities of protection software”. Passwords used to access and disable encryption must be robust.

“For government-issued laptops and phones, it is particularly recommended to implement MFA,” he said. “MFA can take the form of digital methods, such as biometric verification, or physical methods, such as a USB key or ID card.”

“This additional layer of security significantly enhances the protection of sensitive data and reduces the risk of unauthorized access, further ensuring uncompromised trust in software."

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The UK government has announced plans to invest £187 million to bolster tech skills across the country in a move welcomed by industry stakeholders.

Unveiled on the opening day of London Tech Week, the ‘TechFirst’ program aims to give young people and workers across the UK access to training schemes in areas such as artificial intelligence.

The program will see individuals given options to upskill and reskill, while around one million secondary school students will have the chance to “learn about technology and gain access to new skills training and career opportunities”.

The move by the government comes in the wake of research from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DIST), which found that by 2035 roughly 10 million workers will be in positions where AI plays a role in some form of their daily responsibilities.

Research from the DSIT also found an additional 3.9 million workers will hold positions in which AI directly impacts their role.

Speaking at London Tech Week, prime minister Keir Starmer said the scheme aimed to put “AI into the hands of the next generation so they can shape the future” and not be shaped by it.

“This training program will unlock opportunity in every classroom – and lays the foundations for a new era of growth,” he said. “Too many children from working families like the one I grew up in are written off. I am determined to end that.”

“This program is the Plan for Change in action – breaking down barriers, driving innovation, and giving every young person the chance of a good, well paid job and a bright future,” Starmer added.

As part of the country-wide skills focus, Starmer said collaboration between government and industry stakeholders will be key.

This will include partnerships with a host of major tech firms, including Nvidia, Google, and Microsoft, to give 7.5 million workers opportunities to learn “essential” AI skills by 2030 to meet growing demands.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who appeared on stage with Starmer at the opening of the week-long event, said AI talent and skills will be “crucial ingredients” in the UK’s long-term goal to position itself as a leading tech economy.

“We’re delighted to partner with the government to train the next generation of AI developers, capable of finding new cures for diseases, discovering new materials and building world-class AI companies,” he said.

TechFirst program a “major step forward” for UK industry

The move has been welcomed as a positive step in both bolstering the UK’s tech skills pool and giving individuals from traditionally underrepresented communities an opportunity to pursue tech careers.

Sheila Flavell CBE, COO of FDM Group, said it’s “encouraging to see the government prioritizing skills development” for young people in particular.

“As technology continues to evolve at pace, equipping individuals with the right training is crucial to ensure they can thrive in emerging fields such as AI, cybersecurity, and digital infrastructure,” he said.

“There must be a continued focus on building accessible pathways into these careers, such as apprenticeships which play a vital role in this, supporting lifelong learning and upskilling to meet the needs of a dynamic workforce,” Flavell added.

“By investing in high-quality training and promoting greater diversity in tech, we can empower the next generation to drive innovation and strengthen the UK’s position as a global leader in digital industries."

The training program will include the launch of an online platform which aims to provide learning tools and training opportunities for students interested in technology careers.

This already has over 100,000 students registered, according to the government, and will be supported by a “local delivery partner” in each of the UK’s regions and constituent nations.

Greg Fuller, VP of Skillsoft Codecademy, echoed Flavell’s comments, noting that it represents a “major step forward” for the industry and will help cultivate a digitally literate workforce.

“With a £187 million investment dedicated to expanding access to digital and AI learning, this initiative shows that the UK is investing not just in technology, but in people,” he said.

“In an AI-driven economy, digital literacy isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. While AI is transforming how we work, its true potential will only be realized when individuals have the knowledge, skills, and confidence to use them effectively.

“By aiming to equip 1 million secondary school students and 7.5 million workers with foundational AI and digital skills by 2030, the government is taking bold action to close the digital skills gap at scale and at pace.”

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In a reference to the suave civil servant in 1980s comedy series Yes Minister, the UK government is trialing an AI assistant called Humphrey with local authorities.

The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT) said the aim is to help civil servants speed up admin tasks in areas such as planning and social care, as well as in central government.

In a first step, 25 local councils are currently taking part in an early-stage trial, using a tool called ‘Minute’ to speed up note-taking across the services they provide - including the planning process holding back the government’s efforts to build 1.5 million homes by 2030.

The AI assistant also helps social care workers and their supervisors take detailed notes in meetings, with specialized tools to help tweak and correct summaries more efficiently, freeing them up for more important tasks.

"From parking permits and planning permission, local councils handle some of the services that impact our daily lives most. For too long, they have been left to fend for themselves when keeping up with rapid innovations in AI and digital technology – when we know it has huge potential to help solve many of the challenges they face," said AI and digital government minister Feryal Clark.

"That’s why 'Humphrey', a suite of exciting AI tools built in my department, is being sent to town halls to help them fast track planning decisions, build 1.5 million homes and take meeting notes more quickly."

Early tests of the Minute tool in central government showed that officials saved a full hour of admin per one hour meeting, with nearly half of them saying note-taking was the least enjoyable part of their job.

Today's announcement follows the prime minister's pledge to find £45 billion worth of productivity savings within the civil service through the digitisation of government services.

Earlier this year, the government’s State of Digital Government Review found that local councils were spending £5 billion per year on technology, despite employing half the number of digital specialists they should be.

And the report also found that each of the 320 local authorities across the country negotiate their technology contracts with big tech companies independently, rather than banding together for economies of scale.

The government wants to see improved data sharing between councils and other public bodies, as well as helping councils negotiate contracts together and share best practices.

"This is just the first step as we are also going to work with local councils to help them buy and build the technology they need to deliver our Plan for Change and support their local communities more effectively," said Clark.

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AI adoption could be a major boon for the UK and save taxpayers billions, according to prime minister Keir Starmer.

Speaking at a campus in Hull, Starmer spoke about how technology will help push through much-needed digital reform in government and potentially unlock £45 billion in savings.

The prime minister said the technology represents a “golden opportunity” for the government, enabling it to bolster efficiency across a wide range of services.

“You will already be thinking about how you use it in your work, and that's an opportunity we're determined to seize,” Starmer said.

“We're going to get the best of the best on AI working across government - I'm going to send teams into every government department with a clear mission from me to make the state more innovative and more efficient,” he added.

Starmer pointed to several example of where AI could help improve productivity and efficiency, including the automation of record-keeping in probation work.

He noted that the same is true for planning applications, in which huge amounts of information need to be gathered, a task that can be completed more quickly through AI.

The PM also talked up the importance of training and apprenticeships, remarking on the importance of apprenticeship schemes and how they will bring people into the government who are skilled in AI and tech.

“We're bringing people in to do this, to transform the way that we do our business,” Starmer said.

UK public sector on brink of change

Starmer's comments are the latest in a series of commitments from the Labour government to harness the technology and drive public sector efficiency.

Earlier this month, the UK’s Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT) announced a reform to public sector funding that will aim to make the deployment of AI projects quicker and easier.

Before that, the UK announced sweeping changes to the state of its ‘AI Opportunity Action Plan,’ a piece of legislation designed to support and bolster AI use across the country.

The action involved the creation of ‘AI growth zones’ in which planning permission for AI infrastructure will be fast-tracked, as well as a focus on how AI can drive efficiency in the public sector in administration.

Research from Google Cloud in November last year estimated that AI and automation may be able to save the UK government £38 billion in staff time and costs by 2030.

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The UK government has identified the nation’s cybersecurity sector as a key economic growth driver citing “exceptional performance” over the last year, but experts say the sector has more to offer if certain obstacles can be overcome.

A new report released by the Department for Science, Information, and Technology (DSIT) revealed the UK’s cybersecurity sector generated £13.2 billion over the last year, including £7.8 billion in gross value added (GVA).

The sector currently employs an estimated 67,300 people, and Feryal Clark, MP and parliamentary undersecretary of state at DSIT, revealed it created 6,600 new jobs in the past year alone, stating it is a “key part of our vision for kickstarting economic growth”.

The current government, and its predecessor, set out bold ambitions for the UK to become a tech hub and global leader in the AI space, and the DSIT report claimed cybersecurity will be fundamental in realizing these ambitions.

“Cybersecurity is critical to our economic resilience and underpins the deployment of all emerging technology, but also routine transactions, from banking to social media, that we all rely on,” Clark’s foreword to the report stated.

Speaking to ITPro, experts agree that the cybersecurity sector has a lot to offer the national economy, but said there are key barriers to exploiting the remaining value the industry has to offer.

What’s holding the UK cybersecurity sector back?

Andy Kays, CEO at Socura, suggested the £13 billion figure is slightly underestimating the true value the sector adds to the UK economy, arguing that if the UK can address a handful of significant challenges it could unlock "incalculable" growth potential.

“£13bn is a lot of money but the real value added to the UK economy by the cybersecurity market is incalculable,” he claimed.

“While it’s great to see growth, there is so much more potential, particularly if we can address long-standing issues such as lack of technical skills, regional disparities, lack of investment in research and startups, and apathy amongst SMEs.”

DSIT research into cybersecurity skills in the UK labor market in 2024 warned that skills gaps have not shifted much in the last six years, estimating that 637,000 (44%) businesses in the UK have basic skills gaps.

The report noted this means employees responsible for security in these businesses lack the confidence to carry out the basic tasks laid out in the government-backed Cyber Essentials scheme.

Furthermore, DSIT projected that 390,000 (27%) have advanced skills gaps, which refers to skills that are not outsourced but considered important or required for businesses with more complex security needs.

Speaking to ITPro, Jason Howells, VP of Channels EMEA at Barracuda Networks, said another major issue affecting the industry is the disparity between SMBs and larger enterprises. A common misconception among many smaller businesses is that they don't need to invest in cyber as heavily, which is placing many - and the broader business landscape - at risk.

“There is still the perception that the smaller guys don’t need to worry about it because they’re not going to get attacked, they’re not the target audience, and it’s exactly the opposite," he said. "They’re exactly the target audience for that very reason that they haven’t made the right investments.”

Howells cautioned, however, that ongoing global talent shortages only exacerbate this problem as those SMBs that do take their security seriously aren’t able to attract or retain people with the required skills.

“Even if they had the biggest budgets in the world, even if they had all the inclination in the world to go and try and build out this stuff for themselves, they’d never be able to do it, because you can’t find the people or afford the people to be able to do it,” he explained.

“Even if you can find them, because there is such a skill shortage in the world, to retain them is a full-time job.”

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Public sector AI funding will be overhauled in the UK in a bid to simplify processes and push more projects into development, the government has revealed.

Announced by the UK’s Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT), the new approach to spending will seek to embed a “startup” mindset and change how the government funds small AI projects and outdated tech replacements.

The move comes after a review found many digital projects contend with complex spending approval processes that can slow or even completely derail them.

Four new approaches to funding will be trialed beginning in April, including building on the government's in-house chatbot to provide ‘staged funding’ for projects.

The government will look to support ideas with more agile funding processes to increase the speed at which prototypes are built and tested. Projects will then be supported by increasingly larger tests if they show promise.

DSIT said there will also be a focus on creating new metrics and evaluation plans for outcomes so the government can ensure value is being delivered for the taxpayer.

“These changes we’re making ensure innovation is the default. We will help give AI innovators in Government the freedom they need to chase an exciting idea and build prototypes almost immediately,” technology secretary Peter Kyle said.

“This review will help us build technology that will mean businesses can skip the admin and get on with driving growth,” Kyle added.

Industry reaction has been largely enthusiastic, with Jordan Legg, chief AI officer (CAIO) at Takara AI, describing the move a “positive development” in the UK tech landscape.

“The procurement and funding processes in the public sector for AI startups like ours are often convoluted and complex. Simplifying and expediting these processes will enhance cost-effectiveness and efficiency, ultimately providing tangible proof of concept,” ” Legg told ITPro.

“However, there remains room for improvement in clearly defining the scope of their initiatives. Merging two entire departments is overly ambitious and likely to falter,” Legg added.

UK public sector in need of digitalization

If this spending reform works, it could provide a much-needed boon to the UK public sector’s ailing digital infrastructure which was described as “archaic” in a recent government report.

The report found that outdated technology is holding workers back, damaging public sector productivity, impacting customer satisfaction, and costing the UK taxpayer £45 billion.

Research from Appian made a similar claim, finding that staff are spending a total of over 30 million hours on unnecessary extra work every week due to inefficiencies in service delivery.

Over 90% of public sector workers said their organization found adapting processes challenging, particularly regarding changing service demands and government policies.

Early last year, the National Audit Office (NAO) warned that the UK government will need to make serious changes in order to reap the benefits of AI as aging IT infrastructure, skills gaps, and data issues threaten to cause problems.

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TechUK has issued an updated review of its UK Plan for Chips, urging the government to move faster to implement its National Semiconductor Strategy.

Two years on from its initial report, techUK said it had welcomed the publication of the strategy in 2023, which incorporated key recommendations from its original UK Plan for Chips.

However, the trade body said that while the strategy set a strong vision, progress since its launch has been too slow and decisive action is now required.

It believes the government needs to do more to retain the UK's strong position in chip design intellectual property, building on its strengths with targeted policies and financial support.

There should be more incentives for investment into new areas of growth, including advanced designs, emerging technologies and end user readiness, said techUK.

Despite having the world’s third-largest tech sector, many UK semiconductor startups struggle to secure large-scale private investment. As a result, the UK needs a dynamic investment ecosystem that supports semiconductor innovation, providing access to both private capital and public funding.

It should also capitalise on UK strengths in the global supply chain by forming strategic international partnerships, fostering joint research and development, and securing investment and innovation opportunities.

"The UK has a unique opportunity to lead in the global semiconductor landscape, but success will require bold action and sustained commitment," said Laura Foster, associate director for technology and innovation at techUK.

"By accelerating the implementation of the National Semiconductor Strategy, recognizing its role as a key strategic technology and underpinning its importance within the Industrial Strategy, we can unlock investment, foster innovation, and strengthen our position in this critical industry."

In a report last year, the government found that dedicated semiconductor companies generated £9.6 billion in revenues in 2022, around 2% of global semiconductor revenues. Of this, more than 40% was generated by UK-headquartered companies, with Arm the biggest.

Dedicated companies employed around 15,000 people in the UK, with UK-headquartered companies accounting for more than 60%.

But while they've secured a total of £1.7 billion in grants and fundraising so far, around 70% of the total went to just five companies.

Last September, the government handed out a total of £11.5 million to 16 semiconductor scale-ups working on innovations including medical technology and improvements to phone screens.

However, techUK wants to see a bit more urgency from the government to maintain its position and build on its strengths.

"We must act at pace to secure the UK’s semiconductor future and as such our technological and economic resilience," said Foster.

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The UK government has signed a memorandum of understanding with Anthropic to explore how the company's Claude AI assistant could be used to improve access to public services.

According to a statement from government officials, the aim is to advance best practices for the responsible deployment of frontier AI capabilities across the public sector while fostering close cooperation between government and leading AI innovators.

The agreement comes amid the recasting of the UK’s AI Safety Institute as the UK AI Security Institute. The government said it will also look to sign further agreements with leading AI companies.

The collaboration with Anthropic will look at how AI can transform public services and improve the lives of citizens, as well as using the technology to drive new scientific research.

"AI has the potential to transform how governments serve their citizens. We look forward to exploring how Anthropic’s AI assistant Claude could help UK government agencies enhance public services, with the goal of discovering new ways to make vital information and services more efficient and accessible to UK residents," said Dario Amodei, CEO and co-founder of Anthropic.

"We will continue to work closely with the UK AI Security Institute to research and evaluate AI capabilities in order to ensure secure deployment."

Government eyes closer ties with Anthropic

The collaboration will also draw on Anthropic's recently-released Economic Index, which uses anonymized conversations on Claude.ai to understand AI's effects on labor markets and the economy over time. This will provide insights to help the UK adapt its workforce and innovation strategies for an AI-enabled future.

There are also plans for collaboration on securing the supply chain for advanced AI and the UK’s future infrastructure, while Anthropic said it will provide tools to support the UK’s startup community, universities, and other organizations.

In a statement, Anthropic said it will work closely with the new UK AISI, adding that it is committed to developing 'robust safeguards' and driving responsible and secure deployment.

Similarly, the government revealed it will prioritize responsiveness to public needs, privacy preservation, and building trust as core principles guiding the development and implementation of its AI-enabled solutions.

The AI Security Institute, however, will now have less of an emphasis on privacy issues.

Instead, it will concentrate on serious AI risks with security implications, such as how the technology can be used to develop chemical and biological weapons, along with how it can be used to carry out cyber attacks and enable crimes such as fraud and child sexual abuse.

"The changes I’m announcing today represent the logical next step in how we approach responsible AI development – helping us to unleash AI and grow the economy as part of our Plan for Change," said secretary of state for science, innovation, and technology Peter Kyle.

"The work of the AI Security Institute won’t change, but this renewed focus will ensure our citizens – and those of our allies - are protected from those who would look to use AI against our institutions, democratic values, and way of life."

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While government plans to create 13,000 jobs as part of its AI Action Plan have been welcomed, researchers have raised concerns over a potential lack of skilled labor to meet growing demand in the industry.

AI positions are among the hardest for organizations to fill, according to a study from HR platform Deel, with nearly a quarter of enterprises revealing they were most worried about their ability to recruit for AI roles this year.

Matt Monette, UK country manager at Deel, said the UK’s ambition to become a global hub for AI innovation will “hinge on whether organizations have the right skills to make that happen”.

"Clearly, businesses are worried that isn’t the case and without the right people, they - and the wider British economy - will struggle to realise the benefits that AI promises,” he said.

As a result, many organizations are looking overseas to attract the right talent, researchers found. Nearly half of business leaders said they were considering hiring for tech jobs internationally this year.

Nearly three-quarters of IT firms specifically said they would hire internationally to accommodate for talent shortages.

"Hiring from abroad can ease this pain point, letting organizations expand their nets for identifying the right skills for plugging technical gaps," Monette said.

"Plus, not only does it bring in the talent necessary for today’s tech challenges but also sets the stage for sustainable growth in a world where workers are increasingly demanding flexibility to work from anywhere."

The main sources of foreign talent are the US and Europe, both cited by around half the respondents, followed by Canada at 32%. Asian regions such as India and China were also seen as potential talent hubs.

International demand for UK tech roles is already high, Deel data shows, with visa applications placing Britain as the fifth most popular country globally for expats working in the sector.

Red tape could hinder access to international talent

However, British businesses are worried about the potential barriers restricting them from accessing global talent.

The largest concerns highlighted by enterprises include complex legal requirements, cited 55%, followed by stricter immigration policies and compliance risks, both cited by about half of business leaders.

The government outlined a series of steps aimed at bolstering AI-related talent to accommodate its plans.

Notably, the AI Action Plan specifically highlighted scholarship and fellow programs as potential ways to drive talent into the sector, along with the creation of Skills England and the Curriculum and Assessment Review.

These initiatives, it said, would help upskill the existing workforce, as well as teaching young people key skills.

Concerns over AI talent are by no means a new trend for UK tech businesses, with research from last year highlighting this as one of the key barriers to adoption plans.

In a survey from Red Hat, more than eight-in-ten tech leaders said the sector faces an ‘urgent’ AI talent gap. Workers skilled in areas such as generative AI, large language models (LLMs), and data science were hugely sought after, but enterprises struggled to fill roles.

This marked an increase compared to the year prior, Red Hat noted, with AI skills shortages now representing the biggest headache for c-suites ahead of access to cybersecurity talent.

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Bidding has opened for the UK government's much-touted AI Growth Zones, with local and regional authorities being encouraged to make their case.

The proposed zones will see a speeding-up of planning permission for AI infrastructure, including data centers, and give them the energy connections needed to power AI.

As part of this, the government will work with network operators to rapidly scale each zone to 500MW+, enough to power roughly two million homes.

"These new AI Growth Zones will deliver untold opportunities – sparking new jobs, fresh investment and ensuring every corner of the country has a real stake in our AI-powered future," said secretary of state for science, innovation, and technology Peter Kyle.

“We’re leaving no stone unturned in how we can harness expertise from all over the UK to deliver new opportunities, fresh growth, better public services and cement our position as an AI pioneer."

The government is keen to site the zones in deindustrialized areas of the country, as well as locations with existing access to power or which would be suitable to establish major energy infrastructure.

First AI Growth Zone already earmarked

The first zone has already been confirmed for Culham, Oxfordshire, home of the UK’s Atomic Energy Authority. It will also serve as a testing ground to drive forward research on how sustainable energy like fusion technology can power the UK’s AI ambitions.

Meanwhile, the government said interest is already building for promising sites in Scotland, Wales, the North East, and North West, with further exploratory work now set to begin on additional locations across the UK.

"The UK government’s Plan for Change looks to harness AI’s potential in these industries and unlock new opportunities for innovation and economic growth," said Scotland office minister Kirsty McNeill.

"Scotland is already at the centre of these plans, with our world-leading universities at the forefront of AI development and our industrial heritage providing a range of possible sites. I would encourage our local authorities to explore becoming an AI Growth Zone, which will help attract further investment."

Ideally, sites should have large existing power connections - with a current capacity of at least 500 MW - or a clear vision on how energy capacity can be increased.

They should also consist of deindustrialized areas with land and infrastructure ready for redevelopment and be close to suitable sites for major energy infrastructure such as nuclear reactors, solar stations and wind farms, or battery storage.

The government is also seeking input from industry - including energy companies and data center developers - to help to inform the final selection of sites and broader policy decisions later this year.

They are being asked to set out timelines and development milestones which detail how they will plan to ramp up energy capacity, as well as partnership opportunities with local authorities.

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US government IT operations may be wasteful and dated, according to a report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Government IT acquisitions face major challenges and critical action is needed to implement more effective, cost-efficient solutions, the report said. The GAO offered nine actions that must be taken to make these changes.

A strengthening of oversight and management is needed, the report detailed, including improved effectiveness of those in IT leadership positions such as CIOs and chief artificial intelligence officers (CAIOs).

There needs to be a more detailed strategy for the management of IT systems and applications, and improved levels of monitoring of the performance of IT investments.

Government departments must improve IT acquisition and development practices and strengthen the management of cloud services, supply chains, and telecommunications services.

Similarly, the review called for expanded federal IT capacity and capability through workforce management, technology management, and improved digital services for federal customers.

The federal government invests over $100 billion in maintaining existing IT systems and developing new ones but, according to the GAO, these investments frequently fail, exceed budget, or go over schedule.

“The federal government is not fully reaping the benefits of modern technology to reduce costs and better serve the American people,” Gene L. Dodaro, U.S. Comptroller General and head of the GAO, said.

“As federal IT needs intensify and technologies evolve and become more complex, federal agencies must address the longstanding IT acquisition and management challenges GAO has identified since this area was designated high risk in 2015,” Dodaro added.

Legacy tech woes span both sides of the Atlantic

The US government is not alone in these issues. In the UK, one report found that legacy had been holding back public sector efficiency to the tune of £45 billion in wasted taxpayer money.

"Technology that sits at the foundation of our country has been left to wither and decay under the hands of the previous government, too often grinding to a halt and stalling essential public services – racking up a huge bill for the taxpayer," technology secretary Peter Kyle said at the time.

The report found that over 25% of digital services in UK government departments were outdated, racking up maintenance costs over three to four times higher than if systems were kept up to date.

‘Archaic technology’ is holding UK public sector workers back and is costing the taxpayer £45 billion, new figures show.

A scathing government report due to be published tomorrow found that legacy technology is crippling productivity and damaging public satisfaction in services.

Notably, the report found the previous government's over-reliance on contractors has sent costs rocketing, and outages and cyber attacks are endangering NHS and public services.

"Technology that sits at the foundation of our country has been left to wither and decay under the hands of the previous government, too often grinding to a halt and stalling essential public services – racking up a huge bill for the taxpayer," said technology secretary Peter Kyle.

"The new findings are also expected to show government departments have been pushed towards bringing in contractors and consultants to complete basic technological tasks instead of full-time staff.

"This trend was driven by weak salaries and headcount restrictions that stopped departments. This is despite them costing three times more than civil servants and eating up £14.5 billion in taxpayer money a year."

The report specifically highlighted the public sector’s over-reliance on paper, with some departments managing more than 500 paper-based services.

More than one-in-four digital systems used by the central government were also found to be outdated - with this figure rising to seven-in-ten in some cases.

This, the report pointed out, can rack up huge maintenance costs, ultimately resulting in the taxpayer paying three-to-four times more than if the technology was kept up to date.

Meanwhile, a growing number of these outdated systems are 'red-rated' for their reliability and security risk. NHS England alone saw 123 critical service outages last year, often meaning appointments were missed because staff were forced back to using paper-based systems.

Later this week, a new offering from an expanded Government Digital Service will be announced. This will scan for vulnerabilities across the public sector that hackers could use to shut down essential services. Support will then be provided to help fix any issues.

The government is also launching new AI tools designed to speed up the process of connecting clean energy projects to the national grid.

Similarly, another AI solution, dubbed Scout, is aimed at helping officials deliver major multi-billion-pound projects on time and to budget by automatically analyzing thousands of documents to detect problems earlier and enable timely interventions that keep projects on track.

It replaces processes whereby up to 150 reports and documents are manually reviewed, leading to crucial details being glossed over and opportunities to prevent problems missed.

"There is a £45 billion jackpot for the public sector if we get technology adoption right - that’s twice the size of the black hole we faced when we took office, and it’s not an opportunity we can let pass us by," Kyle said.

Last week, the National Audit Office (NAO) released a report into the way the government has worked with technology suppliers, saying it had wasted taxpayers’ money and missed opportunities to modernize government.

Digital contracts, it said, were awarded without enough preparation, thanks to pressure to deliver.

Legacy tech isn’t restricted to the public sector

The issue of legacy technology isn’t unique to the public sector, with research showing outdated IT infrastructure still plagues private enterprises globally.

A report from NTT Data in June 2024 found legacy tech is holding back more than eight-in-ten organizations worldwide - and this is having a serious impact on digital transformation goals.

An overwhelming majority (94%) of C-suite executives told NTT Data that legacy infrastructure is hampering business agility.

Contributing factors behind this included rapid modernization, a fragmented supplier ecosystem, and the proliferation of technology consumption models.

The UK's National Audit Office (NAO) has released a critical report into the way the government has worked with technology suppliers, saying it has wasted taxpayers’ money and missed opportunities to modernize government.

Government departments have treated tech suppliers in the same way as any other, according to the NAO, with procurement guidance failing to address all the complexities of digital commercial issues.

It must learn from its past procurement approaches to large-scale digital transformation projects, which have experienced decades of poor progress and billions of pounds in cost increases.

The government’s central digital function, which leads on digital and data policy, isn't formally responsible for - and lacks the resources for - more extensive engagement in digital procurement.

Meanwhile, the report warned there aren't enough people with digital commercial skills in government - and departments aren't making full use of the digital expertise they do have when procuring for technology-enabled business change.

Similarly, commercial teams often fail to engage their internal digital experts at the right time.

Digital contracts are awarded without enough preparation, with teams often rushing to award contracts because of pressure to deliver, without always fully understanding what is actually needed from a contract.

Notably, approaches to contract design can have a negative impact on successful digital delivery, with the government sometimes opting for mechanisms which limit the flexibility for suppliers to use their expertise to help the government deliver the desired outcomes.

"A lack of digital and procurement capability within government has led to wasted expenditure and lack of progress on major digital transformation programmes," said Gareth Davies, head of the NAO.

"Government needs to rethink how it procures digitally, including how to deal with 'big tech' and global cloud providers that are bigger than governments themselves. The creation of the new digital centre of government provides an opportunity to make the systemic changes that are needed."

The NAO said that it's the central government that should decide who takes ownership for addressing the problems it's identified, producing a sourcing strategy to include improvements in how it deals with ‘big tech’ and strategic suppliers.

It should also create a digital skills plan to plug recruitment shortfalls and to improve the way decision makers responsible for digital commercial activities and ensure teams are equipped and trained.

For individual departments, the NAO wants to see them strengthening their ‘intelligent client function’. They need to identify and develop key requirements before tenders and bid processes commence, and improve how policymakers and technical specialists work together with procurement specialists.

They should also improve their capability to collect and use data to inform a pipeline of supply and demand, which would help the center of government build a more strategic approach to suppliers.

The UK government has officially unveiled its AI Opportunity Action Plan, promising a greater focus on the opportunities of the burgeoning technology rather than the risks.

Under the new industry focus, the Labour government plans to implement all 50 recommendations set out by Matt Clifford in his AI Opportunities Action Plan, commissioned by technology secretary Peter Kyle last year.

Announcing the strategy, prime minister Keir Starmer said the country’s AI industry “needs a government that is on their side” if it’s to unlock economic value from the technology.

“In a world of fierce competition, we cannot stand by,” he said. “We must move fast and take action to win the global race.”

"Our plan will make Britain the world leader. It will give the industry the foundation it needs and will turbocharge the Plan for Change. That means more jobs and investment in the UK, more money in people’s pockets, and transformed public services. That’s the change this government is delivering."

As part of the move, the government plans to create dedicated “AI growth zones” where planning permission for infrastructure projects will be fast-tracked and given improved access to energy grids. The first of these is set to be launched in Culham, Oxfordshire.

Similarly, the government has pledged to increase public compute capacity by twentyfold, with work starting on a new national supercomputer.

A new team will be set up to focus on the opportunities of AI and build the UK’s sovereign capabilities, while a new National Data Library will help harness public data and support AI development.

There will also be a new dedicated AI Energy Council chaired by the science and energy secretaries, which will work with energy companies with the aim of tapping into technologies like small modular reactors (SMRs).

SMRs have been growing in appeal at big tech companies, with a host of major industry players such as Oracle and Google Cloud seeking to develop their own in-house nuclear capabilities.

Industry experts believe these reactors could play a key role in alleviating strain placed on energy grids by data center infrastructure, providing clean energy on-site.

"AI is a powerful tool that will help grow our economy, make our public services more efficient and open up new opportunities to help improve living standards," said chancellor Rachel Reeves.

"This action plan is the government’s modern industrial strategy in action. Attracting AI businesses to the UK, binging in new investment, creating new jobs and turbocharging our Plan for Change."

AI Action Plan welcomed by industry - but some have reservations

The plan has been welcomed by industry stakeholders across the UK. David Hogan, VP for enterprise, EMEA at Nvidia described the move as a “clear-sighted and ambitious policy initiative to establish the UK as a global leader”.

“Delivering these commitments can boost economic prosperity, enhance public services, and foster the growth of a thriving startup ecosystem”.

A key focus will be placed on driving AI adoption in the public sector under the new plans.

The prime minister specifically highlighted the role AI can play in driving public sector efficiency. This includes saving time on administrative tasks that can be reassigned to improve public services or speeding up planning consultations.

Other potential use-cases include AI-based analysis of camera footage to identify and speed up pothole repairs and support for healthcare professionals to provide faster and more accurate medical diagnoses.

While these are positive use-cases, Gaia Marcus, director of the Ada Lovelace Institute, warned that the government will have to work hard to maintain public confidence.

"The public... have nuanced and often strong views on the use of their data, particularly in areas such as health," she said.

"In light of past backlash against medical data sharing, the government must continue to think carefully about the circumstances under which this kind of sharing will be acceptable to the public."

Sam Robinson, AI policy lead and senior researcher at the Social Market Foundation, praised the plans to speed up planning permission, but called on the government to address the 'absurdly high' cost of industrial electricity.

However, he welcomed the plans to harness AI more in the public sector.

"The UK is uniquely well placed to demonstrate how AI can improve the productivity and quality of public services, and technology secretary Peter Kyle is building a reputation for the UK as the country that is most ready and willing to seize the opportunity," he said.

Jacob Beswick, director of AI governance at Dataiku, said this may be easier said than done. Lingering concerns over the use of public data could hamper progress, he warned.

"Some significant challenges with a public sector AI policy remain, specifically related to how the UK public sector is organized, which makes it nearly impossible to find out who is using AI; what data exists, ownership, and access; and finally the power dynamics between central departments pushing an AI agenda and departmental autonomy," he said.

"The siloed nature of the public sector isn’t just a problem between departments, but also within departments: data silos within departments, for example between different hospitals and NHS Trusts, can seriously hamper attempts not just to create effective AI models, but to create a generally digital, data-driven service."

The UK government plans to spend £1.9 million on cyber resilience projects across the country, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has revealed.

With planned investment in more than 30 projects, the money will help improve the UK’s cyber resilience for both businesses and consumers, and boost national cyber skills.

Some projects set to receive funding include ‘CyberSecurityAId: Empowering Small Businesses with Cyber Security Skills,’ ‘Cybersecurity Angel Investor Network,’ and ‘First Steps to a Cyber Security Career - North West.’

The funding boost comes amid growing concerns over cybersecurity skills shortages across the country. Almost half of UK firms report a deficit in this regard, according to the DSIT, and these projects will help fill current gaps and meet growing demand.

Under the scheme, people across the country will be able to pursue new, high-level career opportunities as a result, DSIT added.

“By upskilling small businesses and individuals, investing in workforce development, and encouraging neurodiverse talent, government and industry partners are fostering robust and diverse cyber communities for the future,” said Jonathan Ellison, director for national resilience and future technology at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

“This is vital for protecting our digital economy, creating new opportunities for secure innovation, and helping make the UK the safest place to live and work online,” Ellison added.

The UK’s minister for cybersecurity, Feryal Clark, also commented, saying strong defenses are needed for the country’s growing digital economy, which is worth billions of pounds.

“Attempts to disrupt the technologies and services we rely on daily continue to grow, so we’re leaving no stone un-turned to make sure our communities have the skills to rise to the challenge,” Feryal said.

Cyber investment is a good start, but does it go far enough?

While the move has been welcomed by industry stakeholders, some experts have questioned the scope of the initiative.

Socura CEO Andy Kays said a key concern is the “size of investment relative to the scale of its ambition”, suggesting that the volume of projects set to be awarded funding could dilute the overall investment.

“30 new projects slated for 2025 and beyond across multiple regions means that this money will be thinly spread across the UK,” Kays said.

“The concern is that this money won’t go far enough to have the level of impact needed. It is, however, a good start,” he added.

Kays said it was “only right” that the UK invest more money to develop its regional cyber skills in places like Wales, the North East of England, and Northern Ireland.

Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor at ESET, welcomed the investment scheme, adding that the initiative will help strengthen the country’s overall cyber resilience and futureproof communities.

“Upskilling workforces is crucial for safeguarding our digital economy, unlocking opportunities to secure innovation, and ensuring the UK remains protected from constant attacks,” Moore said.

“However, this isn’t the first time we have seen a shake-up in the UK’s skills shortage so it is vital that the initiative will continue to be funded and pushed to the next level where more roles are filled,” he added.

The UK government is running a private beta of a new chatbot designed to help people set up small businesses and find support.

The generative AI chatbot, based on OpenAI’s GPT-4o technology, will be tested out by up to 15,000 business users, after earlier trials went well.

GOV.UK Chat is linked from 30 government business support pages, including 'set up a business' and 'search for a trade mark'. Users can ask questions about tax and the support available to them.

Technology secretary Peter Kyle said the use of chatbots could markedly improve efficiency and enable the government to provide timely support for small businesses across the country.

"Outdated and bulky government processes waste people’s time too often, with the average adult in the UK spending the equivalent of a working week and a half dealing with public sector bureaucracy every year," Kyle said.

"We are going to change this by experimenting with emerging technology to find new ways to save people time and make their lives easier, as we are doing with GOV.UK Chat."

If this trial goes well, it could ultimately be rolled out across the full government website, made up of 700,000 pages. This attracts over 11 million users per week and is the best-known digital service in the UK, according to YouGov.

"With all new technology, it takes time to get it right so we’re taking it through extensive trials with thousands of real users before it is used more widely," said Kyle.

"This is an essential part of our ambition to use AI to improve public services in a safe and reliable way, making sure the UK government leads by example in driving innovation forward."

During the first trial, nearly seven-in-ten users said the chatbot was helpful, with only 15% disagreeing.

However, the trial did throw up some problems with accuracy, generating a number of 'hallucinations'. Some of these were “challenging, or abusive, or even seductive”, according to Paul Willmott, chair of the government’s Central Digital and Data Office

Since then, developers behind the chatbot said it's improved significantly. The team has been working with subject matter experts at HMRC to score the accuracy of the chatbot's answers, assess AI answers against example answers written by content designers, and monitor for inaccurate or inappropriate answers and investigate any they find.

There's now also a message included in the onboarding process explaining the risk of inaccurate answers to users, and a link underneath every answer so that users can check the source guidance.

"Unlike ChatGPT, GOV.UK Chat is designed to draw on GOV.UK as the source of its answers,” according to Sam Dub and Josh Davey of the development team. “This means we can ensure it’s always using the most up-to-date guidance, and users can trust the answer comes from government."

There have also been improvements aimed at preventing the chatbot from giving harmful responses such as illegal answers, the sharing of sensitive financial information, or the adoption of a political position.

The UK government is proposing new data laws it says could free up millions of hours of police and NHS time every year and boost the UK economy by £10 billion.

The Data Use and Access Bill is not dissimilar to its predecessor, the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (DPDI), which failed to pass during the 'wash-up' process before the general election earlier this year.

Like the DPDI, it's aimed at cutting down on bureaucracy and making better use of data across public sector bodies.

"With laws that help us to use data securely and effectively, this Bill will help us boost the UK’s economy, free up vital time for our front-line workers, and relieve people from unnecessary admin so that they can get on with their lives," said technology secretary Peter Kyle.

Changes proposed by the government, such as removing manual logging requirements whenever accessing personal data to work on a case, could help save 1.5 million hours of police time a year, the government said.

Meanwhile, patients’ data will be made easily transferable across the NHS so that frontline staff can make better-informed decisions for patients. This, the government revealed, could save 140,000 hours of NHS staff time every year, speeding up care and improving patients’ health outcomes.

"The NHS is broken, but imagine its enormous potential if each part of the system communicated properly with each other. That starts with sharing vital medical records between healthcare providers," said health and social care secretary Wes Streeting.

"This Bill and our Ten Year Health Plan will ensure important data flows safely and securely through the NHS, freeing up staff time and speeding up patient care."

To enable this data sharing across platforms, IT suppliers for the health and care sector will be required to make sure their systems meet common standards.

The bill also promises to simplify tasks such as renting a flat and starting work with online identity verification and electronic registration of births and deaths.

The legislation will cover digital verification services, allowing companies that provide tools for verifying identities to get certified against a standards framework from a new Office for Digital Identities and Attributes (OfDIA) within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

Following the proposals, the bill has been welcomed by the Data and Marketing Association (DMA), which noted it builds on principles that have had cross-party consensus for several years.

"We welcome the focus on economic growth and improved public services enabled by data sharing, which we believe will promote public and private sector collaboration and enable businesses to communicate with their customers more effectively," said CEO Chris Combemalee.

"Our members will welcome maintaining a high level of data protection and the current accountability framework. Getting the balance right is essential to building trust in both the public and private sectors, ensuring that people have confidence in the modern products and services that will improve their lives."

The government has released guidance on how businesses can boost their workers' AI skills and is calling for input for future updates.

The aim is to set out the key knowledge, skills and behaviors that employees should have in order to reap the benefits of AI safely, including how to use tools such as Large Language Models, and how to manage data safely and securely.

The guidance was developed in partnership with the Innovate UK BridgeAI programme and the Alan Turing Institute.

"Businesses are increasingly interested to learn how AI could enhance their productivity and competitiveness, but they also want to ensure they have the skills and competencies to adopt these technologies safely and ethically," said Matt Forshaw, senior advisor for skills at the Alan Turing Institute. 

"The new framework clarifies routes to workforce upskilling and will support businesses across the country to harness the value of AI. This project is underpinned by strong partnership working and we look forward to seeing the impact of this project on the current and future AI workforce."

The guidance categorizes people into four types. 'AI citizens' are members of the public, customers or employees. 'AI workers' don't work directly in AI on a day-to-day basis but are impacted by it. 'AI professionals' are employees with specific responsibilities around data and AI, while AI Leaders are people in senior positions who help to oversee and introduce emerging technologies, such as individuals in board-level roles. 

The guidance then covers five 'dimensions':

• Privacy and stewardship involves ensuring the protection of personal and sensitive data, managing sensitive data, and data stewardship and standards. 
• Specification, acquisition, engineering, architecture, storage and curation covers data collection and management, data engineering and deployment.
• Problem definition and communication includes relationship management
• Problem solving, analysis, modeling, visualization covers identifying and applying technical solutions and project management approaches, along with data preparation and feature modeling.
• Evaluation and reflection looks at performance and outcomes, including where changes need to be made and whether there are any ethical considerations that should be taken into account.

"The recognition that AI is part of industry’s future and our workforce’s future is just the start of integrating AI into business at a grass-roots level," said professor Will Drury, executive director - digital and technologies at Innovate UK.

"Innovate UK’s BridgeAI programme concentrates on four key sectors – this piece of work will build on that by engaging with industry across the board."

The advice, said the authors, is intended as an evolving document and is now up for public consultation. The aim is to develop sector-specific case studies and resources and a full skills framework, to be published early in 2024.

"Making sure workers up and down the country have the skills they need for their jobs with and in AI is a key part of our strategy in making the UK an AI powerhouse and ensuring the skills of our workforce keep pace with this rapidly developing technology," said minister for AI, Jonathan Berry.

"This guidance will be vital in helping us realize that ambition, continuing an important conversation with businesses across the UK to make sure the steps they can take are practical, functional, and successful."

The world’s leading nations on AI have jointly signed a letter of intent on AI safety at the UK’s AI Summit, but civil discussions still play second fiddle to a glaring international divergence on the future of AI and a clear lack of steps for regulating the technology.

In the Bletchley Declaration, 28 countries came together to agree on the shared risks and opportunities of frontier AI and to commit to international cooperation on research and mitigation.

Nations included the UK, US, China, India, France, Japan, Nigeria, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Representatives of countries from every continent agreed to the terms of the declaration.

But what was left unsaid in the agreement is likely to define AI development over the next 12 months than anything addressed within well-intentioned but apparently non-binding text.

Stealing Britain’s thunder

Signatories pledged to “support an internationally inclusive network of scientific research on frontier AI safety that encompasses and complements existing and new multilateral, plurilateral and bilateral collaboration”.

However, Gina Raimondo, United States secretary of commerce, used her opening remarks to announce a new US AI safety institute and arrived just days after Joe Biden signed an executive order that set out sweeping requirements for AI developers in the name of AI safety.

This is far from an internationalist move by the US, which largely appears to have used the AI Safety Summit as a good chance to flog its own domestic AI agenda.

That’s not to say that the UK played the neutral host all week either. Halfway through the conference, HPE and Dell announced new supercomputers that each firm will work on using UK government funding that will together form the UK’s new AI Research Resource (AIRR).

Michelle Donelan, secretary of innovation and technology, stated the investment would ensure “Britain’s leading researchers and scientific talent” had access to the tools they need and that the government was “making sure we cement our place as a world-leader in AI safety”.

For all the praise over the summit, and claims that it was a diplomatic success, this is unmistakably the language of competition and British exceptionalism. 

Prime minister Rishi Sunak’s talk with Elon Musk, which was live streamed on the second day of the summit, further emphasized the PR aspect of the entire event. No major revelations emerged from the chat, which saw the PM quiz Musk in a lighthearted manner and touch on pop culture more than policy.

Yi Zeng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and chair of the summit roundtable on the risks posed by unpredictable advances in frontier AI capabilities, used his closing remarks to advocate for an international AI safety network.

“This morning we've heard that the UK and also the US will have its version of the AI Safety Institute,” said Yi.

“Actually, we think that we should all have something like an AI Safety Institute for our own country but that's not enough. We need to have an AI safety network, working together just to hold the hope that maybe we can solve some of the unpredicted advances and unpredicted failures.”

The fact that Yi was essentially still lobbying for more global cooperation on AI safety even after the Bletchley Declaration had been signed does not inspire confidence in the potency of the agreements made at the summit.

The attendance of Wu Zhaohui, vice minister of technology for the People’s Republic of China, at the AI Safety Summit has been held up by the government as a success of its own. In giving China a seat at the table, and in China’s acceptance of the seat, the UK government allowed for a proper global discussion on AI to take place.

Wu was clear about China’s mindset on AI when it comes to the international community.

“We should increase the representation and voice of developing countries in global AI governance, and bridge the gap in AI and its governance capacity. We call for global collaboration to share AI knowledge and make AI technologies available to the public under open-source terms,” he said.

“AI governance is a common task faced by humanity and bears on the future of humanity. Only with joint efforts of the international community can we ensure AI technology’s safe and reliable development.

“China is willing to enhance dialog and communication in AI safety with all sides, contributing to an international mechanism with broad participation and governance framework based on wide consensus, delivering benefits to the people and building a community with a shared future for mankind.”

Wu and others called for a framework through which safety research could be shared, but by the end of the summit no plans for this were set in stone. 

Going it alone

While the event has proved a welcome confirmation that countries are broadly aligned on the need for AI safety, it seems each will continue on its existing trajectory when it comes to AI legislation.

“This declaration isn’t going to have any real impact on how AI is regulated,” said Martha Bennett, VP principal analyst at Forrester.

“For one, the EU already has the AI Act in the works, in the US, President Biden on Oct 30 released an Executive Order on AI, and the G7 “International Guiding Principles” and “International Code of Conduct” for AI, was published on Oct 30, all of which contain more substance than the Bletchley Declaration.”

Open source still left out in the cold

Amanda Brock, CEO of OpenUK, has been supportive of the government’s aims on AI but has called for a broadening of stakeholders to provide better opportunities for the open-source software and open data business communities.

Her argument that open innovation and collaboration will be necessary for stirring progress in the space does not appear to have won out at the summit itself.

For example, Yi summarized the concerns among his group that open-sourcing AI could be a major risk.

“This is a really challenging topic because in my generation when we were starting working on computer science we were getting so much benefit from Linux and BSD. 

“Now when we're working on large-scale AI models, we have to think about whether the paradigm for open source can continue, because it raises so many concerns and risks with larger-scale models with very large uncertainties open to everyone. How can we ensure that it is not misused and abused?” 

In contrast, Wu called for more encouragement of AI development on an open-source basis, and for giving the public access to AI models through open-source licenses.

His calls are matched by organizations such as Meta, which have called for more open adoption of LLMs and contributed to this field with its free LLM Llama 2. 

The UK government’s pro-innovation approach to AI under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak appears to fly in the face of demands for clarity and oversight from firms throughout the sector.

In a speech on 26 October, Sunak stated that the UK government would not “rush to regulate” AI due to its belief in innovation, and questioned how it could be expected to “write laws that make sense for something we don’t yet fully understand”.

Sunak qualified his statement with reference to a new report on AI risks published by the government with input from the UK’s intelligence community, stating that he wanted to be honest about the threats the technology poses.

It suggested that threat actors and terrorists could use generative AI to create self-replicating malware, spread disinformation and social engineering campaigns, or even gather instructions on ​​building chemical or biological weapons.

A survey by ICASA, the association of IT professionals, found 99% of surveyed European business and IT professionals were worried about the exploitation of AI by threat actors. 

Alternative research from Kaspersky found 59% of European C-suite executives were seriously concerned about the risks of implementing AI, including the potential for data leaks. Many firms are supplementing AI investment with extra spending on application security tools to mitigate these risks.

Business leaders are not alone in considering these risks. The report referenced by Sunak, Safety and Security Risks of Generative Artificial Intelligence to 2025, found that AI will “increase sharply the speed and scale of some threats”.

Amongst UK employees there are also calls for greater transparency on AI implementation, and clear government regulation would play a key role in helping the workforce get a bearing on consistent approaches and requirements on AI.

In his speech, Sunak stated the government would play a role in shaping the field of AI as the private sector is incapable of keeping itself entirely in check.

“Right now, the only people testing the safety of AI are the very organizations developing it,” Sunak said.

“Even they don’t always fully understand what their models could become capable of. And there are incentives in part, to compete to build the best models, quickest. So, we should not rely on them marking their own homework, as many of those working on this would agree.

“Not least because only governments can properly assess the risks to national security. And only nation-states have the power and legitimacy to keep their people safe.”

No rush to over-regulate

While Sunak has been vocal on AI developments, the government has been slow to implement regulations pertaining to the technology. The UK government has notably lagged behind the EU in this regard, with the EU AI Act set to come into force some time in 2025 or 2026.

This is, in part, due to the UK’s current approach to fostering AI innovation and court international partners. Sunak has been eager to position the UK as a candidate for becoming a “leading AI nation”. 

Core to this aim is the government’s AI Safety Summit which will be held at Bletchley Park, best known for its connections with the father of artificial intelligence Alan Turing.

The government also appointed Ian Hogarth head of the UK’s Foundation Model Taskforce. Hogarth has been the co-author of the annual State of AI report since 2018 and will oversee an initial £100 million of government funding to guide the development of safe AI.

It has also awarded £8 million in funding to support 800 AI scholarships across the country, and has announced more than £2.5 billion in joint funding for projects on AI and quantum computing.

“In today’s speech ahead of the AI Safety Summit, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that the UK is not in a rush to regulate,” said Pamela Maynard, CEO at IT consulting and services firm Avanade.

“Regulation or not, we all have a responsibility to balance the immense economic opportunities that the AI revolution could provide with its inherent risks. That’s why we urge companies and governments to put the right responsible AI frameworks in place before they use it and commit to evolving their guidelines as the technology evolves.”

Companies such as Microsoft have already set out plans to tackle AI problems such as hallucinations and potential security threats.

This will be necessary in the short term to mitigate potential AI-related legal nightmares down the road, for both companies and governments.

Slow and steady wins the race

Amanda Brock, CEO of OpenUK said the government's decision to not “rush” AI regulation should be welcomed. Brock added that the move could pay dividends further down the line and differentiate it from the EU’s aggressive legislative approach. 

“The PM has got it right not to rush to regulate as a point of principle,” said Amanda Brock, CEO of OpenUK.

“Recognizing that “we can’t write laws for something that we don’t yet fully understand” is a critical and positive acknowledgment from the PM, which may allow the UK to avoid the mistakes we see in Europe’s rush to control via the AI Act. 

“But if he wants the trust so evident in his speech, we must see his “honest approach” looking to understand potential risk over time including principles-based regulation.”

Brock also called on the Prime Minister to build bridges with the open source community and the potential for open innovation and data within the AI space. 

She argued that a closer collaborative relationship with the open source community could help ensure the country can “support the most forward-thinking risk management of our AI future”.

If the government did pursue more open AI development, it could further distance itself from the EU. Representatives from the open-source community have called on the EU to remove “impractical barriers” to AI development, such as the classification of AI research and testing as “commercial activity”.

Was the door to heavier regulation left open?

The UK government has previously stated that it seeks to avoid heavy-handed regulation of AI out of fear that it might stifle innovation across the sector. 

Sunak made clear in his speech that the government will not deviate drastically from this position in order to achieve its long-term goals. 

But in the months and years to come, it is likely that all governments will be forced to revisit AI legislation in some capacity to ensure it serves the needs of citizens and provides the right balance of competition and regulation for the private sector.

Workers' rights are already a concern as the reality of mass AI-linked job cuts sets in. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has called for new legislation and legal frameworks to be established in order to protect workers in the face of AI.

“We urgently need new employment legislation, so workers and employers know where they stand,” said Kate Bell, TUC assistant general secretary.

“Without proper regulation of AI, our labor market risks turning into a wild west. We all have a shared interest in getting this right.”

The government’s own whitepaper on AI was more equivocal about its statutory approach to AI. While Sunak rejected a heavy-handed approach in his speech, A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation implies the government can only guarantee to not pursue a statutory approach “initially”.

“Following this initial period of implementation, and when parliamentary time allows, we anticipate introducing a statutory duty on regulators requiring them to have due regard to the principles,” the white paper states.

The creation of the AI Safety Institute announced during Sunak’s speech may also fit in with a growing need for dedicated regulators and independent bodies to oversee the safe development of AI.

Government groups such as the UK Frontier Model Taskforce may prove instrumental in the meaningful shepherding of AI development going forward. 

Endeavors to do the same in the private sector, such as Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic’s Frontier Model Forum, have been described as having “almost zero” chance of success due to competition.

The UK’s Online Safety Act has been the subject of scathing criticism by privacy rights groups in the wake of receiving royal assent, with opponents arguing the bill compels the creation of backdoors into encrypted messaging.

Across its two-and-a-half year journey to becoming law, the Online Safety Act has come under heavy scrutiny and criticism from many in the tech industry. 

Its stated goal is to protect children from harm online and to prevent the spread of illegal content, but experts have criticized the extent of the legal requirements the act places on social media firms to implement these changes.

Section 122 of the Online Safety Bill provides Ofcom with the power to compel any tech firm to scan its content or child sexual abuse or terrorism content, or else face fines of up to £18 million or 10% of annual turnover.

This has profound implications for end-to-end encryption (E2EE) in the UK, as social media firms contend they cannot scan encrypted messages without breaching their commitments to uphold user privacy.

The Open Rights Group has criticized the bill for its powers to break encryption and provide government agencies with a ‘backdoor’ on popular messaging apps such as Signal, WhatsApp, or Telegram.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) to mark the passing of the bill, the group once again registered its protestations against the bill’s powers.

“This grab bag of half-baked fantasy solutions to misunderstood (or misrepresented) problems has received Royal Assent, including powers to break encryption in messaging apps and censor content before it's even posted,” it stated.

Signal’s Meredith Whittaker, who took over as the firm’s first president in September 2022, also reiterated Signal’s threat to leave the UK if Ofcom asked it to build a backdoor to user messages.

Officials from other companies such as WhatsApp have threatened to remove their apps from the UK based on the same concerns.

“The fact remains that scanning everyone’s messages would destroy privacy as we know it.  That was as true last year as it is today,” said Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp at Meta in a post on X in September. 

“WhatsApp will never break our encryption and remains vigilant against threats to do so.”

On its passage through the Lords, the government attempted to quell the concerns of tech firms by stating that Ofcom can only impose “technically feasible” requirements.

But the text of the bill and government communications surrounding it continue to state that firms will be required to use “best efforts” to develop technologies to allow for the scanning of content on public and private channels, which would see firms forced to compromise E2EE to meet legal requirements.

The UK government has run campaigns against E2EE for years, arguing that the technology allows criminals to operate without fear of government oversight. 

Tech companies have not faced official restrictions on the use of E2EE to date, and the government has argued that the Online Safety Act does not infringe on the freedom of users to choose E2EE apps.

The Online Safety Bill had been put ‘on ice’ in July 2022, and remained relatively unchanged and inactive until December 2022. In this time, many experts called for a rethink on core elements of the bill including its approach to E2EE but when it returned for readings in parliament the content remained largely unchanged.

Martin Albrecht, professor of cyber security and chair of cryptography in the Department of Informatics at King's College London, told BBC News in September that there is no “magical technology” that allows messages to remain private while being scanned.

Others in the industry have praised the act’s various protections for users of online platforms, and argued that businesses and Ofcom alike have a responsibility to ensure good controls and practices are followed as a matter of urgency.

“The Online Safety Bill receiving Royal Assent is a moment that has been years in the making and should be welcomed by all who value internet safety,” said Chris Dimitradis, chief global strategy officer at ISACA, the association of IT professionals.

“If implemented effectively, this legislation will provide appropriate protection for UK citizens to be protected online. But to achieve this mission, Ofcom has a crucial role to play. It will be essential for the regulator to set robust data quality controls, clear technology standards and auditing codes of practice right from the onset. 

“Only then can we ensure affected firms have a comprehensive integrated risk management framework in place to guide their implementation of the UK’s new laws.”

Dimitradis added that businesses have a responsibility to put checks and training in place in order to ensure they are compliant with the act, if they haven’t already.

“As a priority, they must equip their staff with the IT training and skills that they need to use, manage and understand data to avoid being caught breaking the law. This includes having the right processes in place to inform, correct and compensate stakeholders in the event of a breach of the legislation.” 

Many of the act’s powers will come into force by the end of the year, but Ofcom has been given specific powers early so that it may establish plans by the time it is expected to begin enforcing controls.

In line with this, the regulator will run a consultation beginning on 9 November.

More than £8 million in funding has been awarded by the UK government to support regional innovation and create hundreds of AI scholarships across the country.

In total, 800 AI-related scholarships will be awarded as part of the scheme, which the government said builds on long-standing support for the sector.

More than 1,800 scholarships have been delivered in the past three years, with upwards of £18 million allocated to supporting AI skills development.

Eligible students will be able to apply for masters courses across the country that will teach “practical AI and data science skills”, as well as coding, programming, machine learning, and AI ethics.

The government said the courses will play a key role in preparing the future workforce for AI and support its ambition to position the UK as a “world leader in AI safety”.

Derek Mackenzie, CEO at global skills provider Investigo, welcomed the scholarship funding announcement, adding that the investment will provide the UK tech industry with a vital talent pipeline.

“With AI adoption surging on a global scale, getting access to candidates fully equipped with the latest AI capabilities has been a major challenge for businesses,” he said.

“The skills crisis has also left many companies struggling to build a robust talent pipeline, leaving them under-resources at such a critical time.

“This scholarship programme will be a huge boost for students seeking to further their knowledge in key areas like data science, coding, and programming and give businesses a wider talent pool of new candidates to hire and develop in the future.”

Regional development funding

The scholarship funding, announced by technology secretary Michelle Donelan, forms part of the new £60 million Regional Innovation Fund (RIF) and will provide support for universities in “areas with lower levels of research and development”.

The move is part of a drive to boost tech skills across the UK, and will see all four UK nations allocated funding based on their relative size.

This includes a £48.8 million funding boost for universities in England, as well as £5.8 million for academic institutions in Scotland.

Wales and Northern Ireland will both receive funding of £3.4 million and £2 million respectively.

AI skills shortages

The rapid acceleration of the global AI market over the last year has raised concerns over the ability for businesses to find appropriate talent. 

A recent study from GitLab found that human expertise on generative AI is reaching a concerning “inflection point”, with many businesses struggling to find workers with AI skills. 

To combat this, organizations are focusing heavily on in-house training programs to fill gaps. However, the study found that current AI training resources don’t adequately address the issue and could present challenges moving forward.

Appropriate skills and a lack of knowledge on the topic were both highlighted as “key obstacles” to AI adoption, GitLab found.

A similar study from Virgin Media O2 earlier this year found that the UK’s broader digital skills gap costs the UK economy over £12.8 billion, underlining the need for greater investment in skills development across the board.

Josh Boer, director at tech consultancy VeUP, said that with AI currently disrupting the technology industry, schemes to support skills development in this area are critical.

“It’s absolutely critical that the next generation are given every opportunity to gain access to qualifications in such an important technology. This funding will also be a huge boost for ambitious businesses, giving them access to a new wave of AI-equipped candidates to recruit and take their company forward.”

The UK government has named Dave Smith as its new National Technology Adviser, a veteran in the tech sector and expert who has worked closely with the government throughout his career.

In the role, Smith will be responsible for establishing and strengthening relationships between government, industry, and academia on science and technology.

He will also provide advice directly to the ministers at DSIT, with the remit of ensuring the UK  continues to improve its international reputation and advantage when it comes to technology.

Smith’s predecessor, Sir Patrick Vallance, helped to provide recommendations on the government’s 2023 Spring Budget with regard to spending on emerging technologies such as quantum computing.

He will report directly to Sarah Munby, the permanent secretary at the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT), and closely collaborate with Dame Angela McLean, the government’s chief scientific adviser.

“I am deeply honored to serve as the UK’s National Technology Adviser,” said Smith.

“Throughout my career, I’ve consistently advocated for the transformative power of technology and innovation to redefine societies.”

“I’m delighted to have the opportunity to harness the growing potential of the British tech sector to drive growth and tackle society’s biggest challenges. Building upon the significant foundations laid by Sir Patrick Vallance, I’m eager to ensure the UK’s continued leadership and position as a global tech superpower.”

Smith previously served as the managing director at Roke Manor Research (Roke), a research and development firm that provides technical systems and advisory services across communications, defense, and intelligence to clients such as the UK government.

Roke has worked with the Royal Navy on artificial intelligence (AI) technology for use in combat situations, and also markets products in “geospatial intelligence”.

Within his role at Roke Smith specialized in wireless and cellular solutions, having headed up its wireless division prior to taking on his executive role. He also worked with the MoD on defense communications. 

He brought this expertise to his subsequent positions including as group head of technology at PA Consulting Group, and director of central technology at Rolls-Royce.

Smith achieved a PhD in physics from the University of Warwick and also took part in Harvard Business School’s Executive Education program in 2017.

His first days in the post will be colored by the UK’s return to the Horizon Europe program, which will see renewed cooperation between UK researchers and their counterparts in the EU as well as other countries in the program including Norway and Israel.

His first days in the post will be colored by the UK’s return to the Horizon Europe program, which will see renewed cooperation between UK researchers and their counterparts in the EU as well as other countries in the program including Norway and Israel.

As part of the program, which the UK spent two years outside of following Brexit, UK researchers will be able to bid for grants for projects across areas such as AI, climate science, and advancements in medical tech.

Smith’s experience as managing director of the environmental services firm Ricardo could be particularly useful for his expected duties when it comes to the UK’s role in tackling climate change, a goal that will only become more pronounced in the coming years.

He is also likely to become closely involved with the UK’s AI Safety Summit, which seeks to draft agreements on international AI safety policy and bring together partners from across sectors to tackle the risks of frontier models that leverage generative AI.

In this capacity, Smith will liaise with the UK AI Safety leader Ian Hogarth who heads the Foundation Model Taskforce.

“The Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology has a clear mission: to ignite innovation that enriches our economy, elevates our public services, and strengthens our national security,” said Michelle Donelan, secretary of state for science innovation and technology.

“Dave Smith’s appointment sends a firm message: we are committed to bringing the brightest tech minds to government, and working hand-in-glove with industry to make the most of what tech has to offer.”

The UK has set the dates for its AI Safety Summit, which will bring together government representatives, academics, and industry experts to plan for the future of artificial intelligence (AI) development.

A key focus of the event will be ‘frontier models’, the next generation of AI systems on the horizon that hold immense potential for productivity and economic development but also pose a potential threat.

The summit will be held on 1 and 2 November at Bletchley Park.

To date, AI innovation and regulation has progressed on a largely disaggregated basis, with some collaboration through the G7 and OECD but no concrete international approach to safe AI implementation.

In August, the government announced that Matt Clifford, CEO of Entrepreneur First and chair of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), and Jonathan Black, former deputy national security adviser, would lead preparation for the summit.

Bletchley Park was famously home to Alan Turing and the rest of the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) during the Second World War. Turing is recognized as one of the earliest pioneers in the field of AI and a giant in the field of computer science.

“To fully embrace the extraordinary opportunities of artificial intelligence, we must grip and tackle the risks to ensure it develops safely in the years ahead,” said Rishi Sunak, prime minister of the UK.

“With the combined strength of our international partners, thriving AI industry and expert academic community, we can secure the rapid international action we need for the safe and responsible development of AI around the world.”

Specific attendees have not yet been announced, but it’s hoped that agreements made at the summit will sit alongside the OECD’s Recommendation on Artificial Intelligence, Global Partnership on AI (GPAI), and the G7 Hiroshima AI Process.

The UK government has made several moves in recent months to center AI as an important technology for the country’s future. In the Spring Budget, chancellor Jeremy Hunt set aside £900 million ($1.1 billion) for AI research and the creation of a new exascale supercomputer.

It has also allocated £3.75 million ($4.76 million) for AI net zero projects that can work to decarbonize the UK’s carbon economy. 

Tech investor Ian Hogarth, co-author of the yearly State of AI report, has assumed the role of chair at the UK’s AI Foundation Model Taskforce, a new group that will liaise with experts across the sector to define international standards for AI safety. 

It is directly involved in the AI Safety Summit, and has an additional mission to identify how the public can be better informed about AI models.

Why is AI facing greater regulation?

There is huge interest in AI across the private sector, with a wide range of products and services that utilize the technology already available. But risk analysts have also warned that AI misuse poses a serious threat.

Amidst this AI gold rush, some have called for more caution and argued that the speed of AI development is exceeding safety measures. In March 2023, figures such as Steve Wozniak and Elon Musk called for a six-month pause in AI development to curb potential risks.

The pace of development has undeniably quickened in the past year, with companies such as Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Amazon all grabbing AI with both hands and previously niche firms such as OpenAI and Anthropic having stormed into the headlines.

In order to create ethical AI, developers will need to follow strong internal guidelines or be compelled to uphold certain standards by legislation.

Demis Hassabis, CEO of Google DeepMind has stated that the safe and responsible creation of AI is paramount. In a Time interview, former Google SVP Alan Eustace alleged that Hassabis only agreed to Google’s acquisition of DeepMind on the condition that ethics would come first for development.

Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic have also formed the Frontier Model Forum, with the aim of identifying the safest ways to develop AI as increasingly advanced models come to fruition.

Avivah Litan, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner told ITPro, however, that the Frontier Model Forum has “practically zero” chance of developing universal solutions for safe AI due to the competition between members.

Many governments have also come to the conclusion that the private sector cannot be trusted to develop, train, or implement AI systems ethically and in line with individual rights without heavy intervention.

The EU’s AI Act lays out a range of new responsibilities for AI developers including a requirement for them to disclose the data they used to train models. 

Individual AI systems will be given strict risk assessments under the legislation, with ‘high risk’ systems subject to registration in a public database and stringent checks on their use. Firms that do not comply with the legislation will face fines of €20 million or 4% of worldwide annual turnover.

Systems including those that use AI for live facial recognition or to subliminally affect users will be deemed unacceptable and be banned under the law. It’s expected to come into effect in 2025 after having passed a series of key votes in the European Parliament.

The UK’s own AI legislation is progressing slower than the EU’s, and explicitly emphasizes innovation over risk. To this end, the UK’s white paper on AI development does not propose a statutory approach to AI regulation. 

It’s hoped that the UK’s AI Safety Summit will lay out a clearer approach for UK tech firms regarding AI. The summit will likely align the UK closer to US policy on AI, as the two countries seek closer collaboration under the recently-announced Atlantic Declaration.

The UK government has allocated a total of £3.75 million ($4.78 million) for green artificial intelligence (AI) projects that will work to decarbonize the UK economy and cement the UK’s place as a leader in the field.

Digital Catapult has been allocated £500,000 ($637,812) to launch the Artificial Intelligence for Decarbonisation’s Virtual Centre of Excellence (ADViCE). 

This will act as a virtual hub for collaboration between public and private sector AI experts, and is to be run in conjunction with the Alan Turing Institute and Energy Systems Catapult.

A total of £1 million ($1.3 million) has been awarded to 12 projects in ‘strand 2’ of the program, with a further £2.25 million ($2.87 million) having been announced for future applicants.

Winning firms include London-based Secqai Ltd, which was awarded £100,000 to develop its extreme low-power AI technology that will aim to mimic the structure of the human brain. It is hoped the novel design will lead to new AI energy efficiencies.

“The ADViCE program will drive forward AI’s integral role in solving critical decarbonization challenges,” said Dr Jeremy Silver, CEO at Digital Catapult.

“The program partners sit at the heart of the UK’s dynamic AI ecosystem and are perfectly placed to forge collaborations between the technology community and some of our most carbon-intensive sectors.

“Smart use of AI and data will be fundamental to meeting the UK’s net zero commitment. ADViCE will support those building the algorithms and those investing in AI solutions in the most impactful way possible.”

Open Climate Fix Ltd also received £121,500 ($155,000) to produce an AI system that will use satellite imagery, weather data, and real-time data from the national grid to forecast solar power generation.

As renewable energy such as solar and wind experiences peaks and troughs tied to the time of day and weather, accurate forecasting allows the grid to provision the right storage to be online. It will also reduce the need for ‘constraint payments’, in which renewable operators are paid to lower energy production that the grid cannot facilitate.

The program is now accepting applications for its strand 3 funding, with software developers, innovators, and companies such as energy firms encouraged to make a submission by the deadline of 10 October.

AI has been identified as a potentially powerful tool when it comes to the clean technology sector and decarbonization efforts. 

The technology is being plumbed for use in carbon storage by Microsoft, and used to perform complex physics simulations that provide scientists with more accurate climate projections than is possible through traditional data science.

Salesforce has also partnered with the Australian Institute for Machine Learning (AIML) and Green Industries SA (GISA) to provide businesses with insight into how they can net zero goals faster.

Greater energy efficiency will also be necessary for AI itself, as the technology is currently set to massively increase the power demands for data centers. If this is not matched with investments in renewables to produce clean energy at source, AI could quickly have an outsized carbon footprint.

HPE has committed to carbon-neutral AI and other firms have begun work on ensuring the water used to cool AI data centers is part of a renewable system, such as Equinix’s rooftop data center farm and AWS’ aims to be ‘water positive’ by 2030.

The UK government now deems the risk of cyber attacks to be more severe than that presented by small-scale chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) attacks, such as the Salisbury poisoning.

That’s according to its latest National Risk Register (NRR) report for 2023 which assigns severity scores to various scenarios that could have a substantial impact on the safety and security of the UK at a national level.

Cyber attacks on infrastructure were given an impact rating of 3 out of 5 or ‘moderate’, alongside risks such as severe storms brought on by climate change and terrorist attacks on transport. Small-scale CBRN attacks were rated 2 or ‘limited’, in comparison.

This represented an escalation in severity since the 2020 NRR, which had classified cyber attacks as a ‘minor’ risk that would affect essential services for less than 12 hours and cause only tens of millions of pounds in damage.

Scores of 4 or 5 indicated a ‘significant’ or ‘catastrophic’ impact. Risks deemed ‘catastrophic’, associated with tens of billions of pounds in damages and more than 1,000 fatalities, included pandemics, nuclear accidents, and large-scale CBRN attacks.

In the latest edition, it now believes major cyber attacks could lead to much more serious consequences which, in some cases, could take months to recover.

Cyber attacks on UK energy infrastructure including nuclear systems, fuel supply, health and social care systems, the transport sector, and telecommunications were assessed as part of a widespread government analysis of the greatest threats facing the UK.

Attacks such as those on critical national infrastructure were considered through the lens of both cyber and conventional attacks. 

The report concluded that although a sophisticated cyber attack on electricity infrastructure could be quicker to remedy than an attack on the same target using conventional weapons, it may have a larger effect on other critical services.

Though cyber attacks as a whole were deemed ‘moderate’ in impact, an attack that led to the total failure of the National Electricity Transmission System, for example, was considered ‘catastrophic’ in impact due to the knock-on effect it would have on telecoms, water, sewage, and fuel.

Experts across areas including cyber, climate, terrorism, and state threats consulted with the government to inform the results. Historical events were used to place some risks in context. 

For example, the WannaCry incident was cited in the government’s analysis of the potential risks of a cyber attack on UK health and social care systems, an event which it deemed would have immediate effects.

Other risks lacked specific detail, which the government stated was necessary in order to provide transparency while protecting national security and commercial secrets.

In all, the government assessed 89 risks that could have a substantial impact on the safety and security of the UK at a national level if they came to pass as part of its latest NRR.

Each of the 89 risks was placed on a matrix grouped by likelihood, ranging from less than 0.2% for a worst-case scenario to occur within a set period, to a greater than 25% chance. Malicious risks were considered over a two-year period, versus a five-year period for non-malicious risks. 

While non-malicious risks were assessed by relevant government departments and expressed with a percentage value to represent their likelihood, malicious risks underwent a three-part risk consideration. This took into account the vulnerability of targets, the intent of threat actors, and their ability to conduct a successful attack.

All cyber attack risks were grouped together to form an average risk assessment on the matrix and were overall found to represent a moderate risk and be between 5-25% likely to occur.

Risks were also scored on severity from minor, which could result in millions of pounds in damage and 1-8 fatalities, to catastrophic which would result in tens of billions of pounds of damage and more than 1,000 fatalities.

The full range of risk groups assessed in the document were:

• Terrorism
• Cyber
• State threats
• Geographic and diplomatic
• Accidents and system failures
• Natural and environmental hazards
• Human, animal, and plant health
• Societal
• Conflict and instability

No government in 2023 can afford to put its head in the sand when it comes to AI. Whether we like it or not, the genie is out of the bottle and artificial intelligence is only going to become more prominent in all our lives.

Amid concerns that UK AI regulation is being outpaced by the EU, the Labour Party has set out its stall for how it would approach AI if it’s successful in forming a government at the next election. While this is to be welcomed, it must carefully avoid ethical and legal pitfalls.

One such proposal is to use AI systems at the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), to identify benefits fraud and error, help match unemployed people with suitable jobs, and process claims more efficiently.

It’s an admirable goal, but one riddled with potential problems. Any government looking to use AI to tackle fraud to a greater degree, particularly based on lessons derived from historical data, would do well to remember the Dutch childcare benefits scandal.

In short, the affair centered around a machine learning (ML) algorithm used by the Dutch government to identify fraudulent childcare benefits claimed. 

The system wrongly flagged applicants as risky and was later found by an investigatory committee to contain institutional biases, which were reflected in the algorithm’s output. The result was tens of thousands of innocent parents accused of benefits fraud.

Although there’s a clear political lesson here - the scandal led to the downfall of the Dutch government - there’s also a clear technological one too. AI is best applied to areas in need of improved productivity, but must always play second fiddle to human workers. 

The DWP’s current use of machine learning is actually a perfect example of this in action. It uses an algorithm trained on bundles of historical claims data to spit out potentially fraudulent Universal Credit claims.

Cases flagged by the algorithm are then reviewed by humans - a shining example of how tech can be used as an accelerant rather than an agent of total reform.

Shadow secretary of state for work and pensions Jonathan Ashworth has indicated that human workers would still make final decisions under Labour’s AI plans, which raises the question of how the party thinks its approach would improve upon DWP’s existing algorithm.

At the end of the day, if Labour is serious about using AI to improve the economy and recoup lost government spending, it could do a far better job applying it to HMRC than the DWP, as the former needs far greater scrutiny.

Benefits overpayments totaled £8.3 billion in FY2023, while underpayments totaled £3.3 billion. In comparison, a parliamentary report into tax compliance found that HMRC has failed to chase £42 billion in unpaid taxes and only around £1.1 billion of an estimated £4.5 billion lost during the pandemic to erroneous and fraudulent support claims.

Applied sensitively, AI would play a far more significant role in buttoning up the UK’s tax landscape than it could in working on the margins of unemployment.

A more effective HMRC, bolstered by thoughtful AI implementation, would bring an immense boost to the UK economy. This would come as a benefit to all operating in the UK, with businesses able to operate in a more thriving market and the government in a more secure place to provide corporate subsidies.

But while Labour rightfully highlights the threat of AI to jobs - supported by the recent cases of AI-driven mass layoffs and Big Tech hiring overhauls - the boosts to productivity and system efficiency for organizations that are struggling for staff are too tantalizing to pass up.

With HMRC having been identified as one such area in need of improvement, it would be foolish to not pursue this further.

Tech investor Ian Hogarth has been announced as the chair of the UK government’s Foundation Model Taskforce, which will work to research and unlock AI safety.

The Taskforce will work with industry partners and sector experts to establish public consensus on the safety of machine learning (ML) models, amidst widespread adoption of new AI systems.

Hogarth was a co-founder of concert service Songkick, as well as the investment firm Plural Platform which organizes venture capital for “the unemployables”, a term it uses for experienced founders looking to strike out on their own.

Through the firm, Hogarth has reportedly invested in over 40 startups, including many that specialize in ML and AI.

He studied engineering at Cambridge University, and followed this with an MA specializing in machine learning. Hogarth is now a visiting professor at University College London, working at its Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP).

Since 2018, Hogarth has been a co-author of the State of AI report, an annual analysis of the development of AI.

The 2022 report stated that the UK is “taking the lead” on AI risk and that 69% of surveyed machine learning (ML) experts believed more AI safety was needed.

One of nine predictions made at the end of the report was that over $100 million would be invested in organizations dedicated to “AI alignment” in 2023, in acknowledgment of how AI development has outpaced safety.

In order to assess the risks posed by AI, the Taskforce will bring together experts from academia, government, and industry.

It will seek to establish guardrails that can be implemented internationally, cement the UK’s place as a leader in AI research and improve the usage of the technology worldwide.

This will be an important aspect of the UK’s approach to AI regulation, which has lagged behind the EU to date.

The government has compared the Taskforce to the successful Vaccine Taskforce, which helped deliver the UK’s expedited vaccine delivery in the early days of the pandemic.

“Our Foundation Model Taskforce will steer the responsible and ethical development of cutting-edge AI solutions, and ensure that the UK is right at the forefront when it comes to using this transformative technology to deliver growth and future-proof our economy,” said technology secretary Chloe Smith.

“With Ian on board, the Taskforce will be perfectly placed to strengthen the UK’s leadership on AI, and ensure that British people and businesses have access to the trustworthy tools they need to benefit from the many opportunities artificial intelligence has to offer.”

Hogarth’s role in the UK’s AI Taskforce

One of Hogarth’s first tasks in the role will be to lay the groundwork for the UK’s upcoming AI summit.

The Taskforce will initially receive £100 million of government funding and is expected to play a key role in the government’s AI ambitions going forward.

Foundation models, which employ vast training data to produce a wide range of outputs, are a core facet of generative AI.

This has become a hot topic in almost all industries, with headlines focused on tools such as ChatGPT and Bard driving a rise in public interest in the technology. 

But foundation models could power a wide range of tools beyond chatbots, and serve valuable purposes in high-risk sectors such as pharmaceuticals or energy.

The Taskforce will work to improve public perception of foundation models by clearly assessing the risks posed by different systems.

Through its research and at the summit hosted later this year, it will aim to establish shared approaches to regulation, ethics, and security standards for AI.

Private AI companies have already agreed to give the Taskforce early access to certain models to allow for safety evaluation.

As I get older, my available spare time for dealing with idiots is getting shorter. Perhaps that’s because I’m aware I have considerably less remaining time on this planet than I have enjoyed so far. 

Whatever the reason, I’ve noticed I’m becoming hyper-critical of the vacuous nonsense politicians spout on an almost daily basis. It doesn’t matter which hue they are, the low quality of the content is beyond worrying. Imagine my annoyance when I read this:

“Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT offer huge potential. In the future, they could help us live longer, healthier, wealthier lives. I want us to invest now to reap the benefits of this innovation; in healthcare, manufacturing, and public service delivery.”

Who spouted this drivel? None other than Michelle Donelan MP, secretary of state for Science Innovation and Technology (SIT).

Maybe LLMs will be a hugely beneficial revolution (although my experience suggests every technological upside comes with an equal and opposite downside). But LLMs only work because they have scraped the public internet at a global level. They have no intelligence, no wisdom, no curation of significance.

They’re excellent at taking global textual output that has been conveniently provided to them for free and can create some quite remarkably believable prose as a result.

Undoubtedly LLMs will be helpful to us, but the claim that “they could help us live longer, healthier, wealthier lives” is pure drivel.

Or perhaps I’m wrong? After all, another of my valuable life lessons is I can, on some exceptionally rare occasions, be incorrect. Surely someone in such an exalted and respected position as secretary of state for SIT couldn’t have splurged this out without thinking it through?

What credentials does Michelle Donelan have?

Let’s examine the secretary of state’s credentials, as gleaned from Wikipedia.

“Donelan was educated at The County High School, Leftwich, before graduating from the University of York with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and politics. 

“Donelan's career outside politics was in marketing, including a time working on Marie Claire magazine and for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE).

“She subsequently stood for parliament at the 2010 general election in the safe Labour seat of Wentworth and Dearne in South Yorkshire.”

I’ll be the first to recognize the work Michelle Donelan has done in Parliament for victims of domestic violence, education for children, and the Family Justice Board. All important and valuable, and surely to be applauded. 

I would also accept a BA in history and politics is useful, especially for a politician, but I struggle to see how it helps anyone in charge of UK science, innovation, or technology.

Nevertheless, for a few weeks under prime minister Liz Truss, she was secretary of state for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS), and if you squint at that in a certain light her background perhaps comes to her aid.

But now she is secretary of state for SIT, and I have to ask: “Why?” She has no background in science, innovation, or technology. She has no education in the field. She hasn’t worked in this space at all. And yet she is the head person in the government tasked with this critically important area. 

UK politics lacks serious STEM influence

I started doing some digging into the numbers of people both within and entering the UK Civil Service with STEM qualifications and, according to a University of Cambridge study, it’s pitifully low. Around 10% of civil servants have STEM degrees, compared to 16% in the US and 30% in South Korea.

Maybe STEM graduates find they can have a more rewarding working life away from the government. We know for sure the UK doesn’t do enough to attract such brains into the civil service. 

Yet, at the same time, the UK is a huge engine of science and engineering and one the government never tires of shouting about. Surely, STEM should be properly represented both in the Civil Service and among our political leaders?

One answer boils down to education. I was fortunate enough when I went to university in 1982 that degrees were funded by government grants. I wince at the sort of debt taken on by our university entrants each year. 

Come the revolution, degrees in STEM subjects will be funded by the old-style grant method. We desperately need to skill up our workforce and, as the saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures. 

Will it happen in my lifetime? I hope so. And until then, I shall continue to point out that working at Marie Claire, whilst entirely honorable in itself, is no career path to be telling the UK tech sector about large language models.

Last week Rishi Sunak told attendees at the Business Connect conference in London that he was “unashamedly pro-business” while pushing the government’s latest buzzword, ‘Unicorn Kingdom’. 

The new term, which admittedly prompted a collective cringe-induced grimace throughout the UK tech ecosystem, does appear bold and ambitious. 

Sunak explained that the government’s latest attempt to accelerate growth in the UK tech sector centers around drawing upon expertise from Silicon Valley in an attempt to embed its lauded entrepreneurial spirit across the UK ecosystem. 

“We just launched a campaign in Silicon Valley,” he said. “Just talking about our companies, what they were doing. Some of our ministers were out there the other week.”

"It was a huge success. It was called Unicorn… what was it called? ‘Unicorn Kingdom’."

The government has made no secret of its ambition to become the ‘next Silicon Valley’ in recent months as it looks to position the country as a leading global tech economy. 

But while slogans like ‘Unicorn Kingdom’ and aggressive marketing of the UK tech sector seem proactive on the surface, if one were to chip away at the veneer of British tech exceptionalism, the current outlook appears rather concerning.

Venture capital decline raises eyebrows

Recent analysis of the state of venture capital investment in the UK shows that the industry is in a precarious position. And while the UK ecosystem isn’t unique in witnessing a decline in VC funding, the numbers should be a cause for concern. 

A total of £2.9 billion ($3.6 billion) was raised by UK firms in the opening three months of the year, statistics show. This quarterly funding rate marks the lowest raised by companies in a single quarter since 2020, and is “significantly down” on the £12.3 billion ($15.2 billion) raised in Q1 2022. 

Additionally, deal volumes were also “muted”, KPMG revealed, with just 402 deals recorded across the quarter. This marks the smallest number of deals completed since KPMG launched its Venture Pulse report. 

With UK tech companies experiencing acute pressure from the decline in venture capital of late, the prime minister’s ambition could find itself on rocky ground in the months ahead. 

Furthermore, if it’s a unicorn kingdom that the government seeks to build, then a similar analysis of the current UK tech landscape raises yet more concerns. 

Unicorn kingdom or unicorn winter?

In its final industry overview report before closure in March, Tech Nation warned that the country could be on the cusp of a ‘unicorn winter’ due to a lack of support for high-growth companies operating across the ecosystem. 

It found that 2022 saw a decline in the rate of unicorns created, with just 4% growth across the year. This, the report noted, marked a ten-fold decrease in the number of unicorns created between 2020 and 2021. 

A key contributing factor for this looming unicorn winter, Tech Nation suggested, was that the government has failed to provide greater support for high-growth startups amid a significant economic slowdown. 

The former industry champion called for the government to create the “right conditions” to facilitate the creation of tech unicorns and enable companies and founders to thrive. 

This included greater support for founders pursuing late-stage exits, addressing current gaps in access to finance for startups and scale-ups, and a sharpened focus on attracting and retaining industry talent. 

The issue of scale-up support was once again highlighted by tech leaders in a recent virtual Q&A with Sunak on LinkedIn. 

Leaders at a range of top UK-based firms, including Monzo, raised concerns over government-backed support for overseas expansion and support mechanisms that enable companies to scale up. 

This in itself suggests that many industry stakeholders harbor some doubts over the direction of support across the tech ecosystem. 

In the same week, the government was forced onto the offensive following the CMA’s decision to block Microsoft’s multi-billion-dollar acquisition of Activision on competition grounds. 

While the CMA’s ruling was widely expected by a host of industry analysts, the incident sparked a war of words with Microsoft in which the company questioned whether the UK was an attractive proposition for tech companies. 

Microsoft president Brad Smith told BBC News that the decision was “bad for Britain” and suggested that this highlighted a diminishing reputation for the UK with regard to tech investment. 

“There’s a clear message here,” he said. “The European Union is a more attractive place to start a business if you want some day to sell it. The English Channel has never seemed wider.”

A spokesperson for the prime minister countered Smith’s claims, noting that they were “not borne out by the facts”. 

“Last year the UK became the third country in the world to have a tech sector valued at $1 trillion, behind only China and the United States in terms of investment.”

Silver linings for UK tech

Smith’s reactionary comments were expected given the circumstances. However, the government’s retort makes a valid point - the UK is still a leading European tech economy and an attractive proposition for startups and founders. 

In recent years, there’s no doubt that the UK has cultivated a reputation as one of the world’s leading tech economies, ranked only behind China and the United States for venture capital investment.

Last year saw UK tech companies continue to raise investment at near-record levels despite obvious economic hurdles. Across the year, the industry raised £24 billion ($30 billion), more than France and Germany combined. 

Similarly, the UK has produced more than 400 high-growth startups since 2000, including more than 145 unicorns and 237 ‘futurecorns’, according to Q4 2022 figures from Dealroom for the government.

Tech Nation pointed out in March that the number of futurecorns also increased by 45% between 2021 and 2022, further underlining the fact that the tech ecosystem continues to produce dynamic companies - and this shows no sign of stopping. 

The UK could experience a “glut” of unicorns to come, largely due to the fact that many futurecorns were “well poised to gain value” in the future. This highlights the effectiveness of the UK at supporting companies to scale. 

All that’s required thereafter is to continue support once companies reach the high end of the value spectrum, Tech Nation said. 

Putting aside the prime minister’s rather cringeworthy statements around creating a ‘unicorn kingdom’, the ambition there is admirable. 

Fostering closer ties with Silicon Valley and its breadth of expertise will undoubtedly benefit UK tech stakeholders and aligns well with an ongoing vision to frame the British ecosystem in a similar light. 

And while there are lingering concerns about the impact of the current economic downturn on the UK tech ecosystem, the maturity of the industry at present stands it in good stead to weather the ongoing storm. 

The UK government has announced new legislation intended to prevent big tech firms from unduly dominating digital markets, and to hold firms more accountable to customer obligations.

Once passed, the Digital Markets, Competition, and Consumers (DMCC) Bill will grant the Digital Markets Unit (DMU) new powers to punish anti-competitive practices under consumer law.

Under the bill, companies that are found to have large market power over one or more digital activities, and whose turnover exceeds £25 billion ($20 billion) worldwide or £1 billion ($800 million) in the UK, will be designated with Strategic Market Status (SMS).

The DMU sits within the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), and will be able to decide when companies have broken consumer law instead of going through the courts once the bill has passed.

It will have the authority to set rules for how firms with SMS operate, such as mandating more choices for consumers, which it will enforce with fines of up to 10% of global annual turnover.

In a bulletin announcing the bill, the government gave the example of large firms being asked to provide rival search engines with their data or provide greater insight into how their app store review systems operate.

Alongside its reactive powers, the DMU will work proactively to establish new routes into markets for startups and small businesses and may demand that certain services are accessible on devices and systems on which they are currently restricted.

“Today’s announcement shows we are proudly pro-growth and pro-innovation across the board in the tech sector, seeking to open up new opportunities for all firms, however small or large they are, while empowering consumers,” said Paul Scully, minister for tech and the digital economy.

“The Prime Minister has made his intention to secure growth and innovation within every corner of our economy very clear – the new Digital Markets Unit will help fulfil this important priority for the UK in the digital economy.”

Those seeking greater regulation of big tech have waited years for the DMU to receive the powers necessary to meet its founding principle. 

First announced in November 2020, it launched without statutory powers in April 2021, pending the results of a government consultation which was eventually published in May 2022.

In the years since critics have accused the UK of dragging its feet on big tech regulation while other regions pressed ahead with improved customer protections.

The EU’s Digital Markets Act was passed into law in September 2022, with regulators placing their sights on the likes of Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, and Apple to curb uncompetitive growth.

"Holding big tech firms accountable for their actions will help promote a more level playing field and encourage new players to enter the market,” said Kim Leary, chair at Birmingham-based Birmingham Tech CIC

“It is another step towards encouraging innovation and diversity in the digital marketplace. However, excessive regulation could stifle innovation and limit the growth of companies that have contributed to significant technological advancements. 

“Nonetheless, it remains to be seen how effective this crackdown will be in promoting fair competition and diversity in the market."

Some have expressed concern that the EU’s act, which is expected to force Apple to open iOS devices to third-party app stores, may unintentionally expose users to security risks.

The CMA has stated that it’s been preparing DMU staff in anticipation of the regulator’s new powers, and published a blog post advertising vacancies within the DMU in December 2022.

The bill will be passed into law following parliamentary approval, and may change in line with further guidance.

The UK government has paid a £24 million settlement to Atos after it awarded a Met Office supercomputing contract to Microsoft.

Microsoft was awarded an £850 million contract in April 2021 with the Met Office to build a supercomputer for the purposes of protecting public infrastructure from severe weather events.

The French IT multinational alleged a month later that the government had breached its obligations under public procurement regulations, the Financial Times reported.

The contract reportedly contained requirements to provide a main supercomputer system as well as two test supercomputers and a development supercomputer. All the systems needed to be “architecturally equivalent”.

Atos alleged in its lawsuit that the government had rejected its proposal as it used different processors in the development supercomputer compared to the main supercomputer system.

“Met Office has chosen a final tender which scored lower in quality, transferred more commercial risk to the Met Office and is more expensive,” said the French company.

An Atos spokesperson told IT Pro: “We were pleased to have resolved this matter.

Full details of the settlement remain unclear, as do the reasons why the government decided to settle despite the contract stipulating all systems needed to be "architecturally equivalent".

Denying Atos' allegations, both the Met Office and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said proposed a non-compliant solution that was "not the most economically advantageous".

“The proceedings regarding supercomputer procurement have been resolved with no admission of liability from any party. This settlement is in the best interest of taxpayers,” the Met Office said in a statement to IT Pro.

“An independent review has assured that all procurement processes were followed and there were no failures associated with governance or lack of controls. We will take forward such lessons identified as are applicable to the Met Office."

The settlement with Atos, the only other bidder for the contract, was revealed in the BEIS 2021-2022 annual report, published on 20 October 2022.

“The Core Department and Met Office entered into a settlement agreement with Atos IT Services UK Ltd for joint payment of £24.0 million to Atos, without admission of liability, in relation to a procurement exercise undertaken by the Met Office, an executive agency (trading fund) of the Department,” it said.

The BEIS contributed £20.7 million to the settlement while the Met Office paid £3.3 million, according to the report.

IT Pro has contacted the BEIS for comment.

“Botched government procurement has left the British people picking up the tab,” said Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, via Twitter. “While families count every penny, the Tories are shelling out taxpayers’ cash to pay for their own mistakes.”

The UK and Japan have unveiled a new digital partnership which will see the pair collaborate on a range of digital technologies.

Announced on Wednesday, the partnership aims to deliver on the UK’s plan to increase international collaboration with technology.

It’s set to cover a range of digital issues, including how to improve the resilience of global supply chains, such as with semiconductors, as well as developing research and development projects to share expertise.

The countries are set to promote initiatives to standardise IoT security as well as address the risks of digital services in supply chains. They are also hoping to align their approaches to digital regulation to try and make it easier for organisations to operate in each territory.

It will also see collaboration between the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) - the UK’s data regulator - and Japanese regulators to help businesses and citizens trust data sharing more between the two countries.

“The UK’s relationship with Japan has grown from strength to strength in recent years based on a foundation of shared goals and values,” said UK digital secretary Michelle Donelan. “Our thriving tech sectors are another opportunity for us to work together to benefit citizens and businesses across both countries. I look forward to deepening our relationship through the UK-Japan digital partnership in the future.”

The partnership also will see the creation of a UK-Japan Digital Council. It will take the format of an annual meeting between representatives from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) and Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, and the Digital Agency. In the meeting, the officials will discuss new priorities for both countries.

The collaboration also accomplishes the UK’s goal of becoming the European nation with the biggest presence in the Indo-Pacific region, said the government. This part of the world has become more and more important as global tech competition has intensified.

Japan and the UK signed a post-Brexit trade deal in September 2020 which allowed the free flow of data between the nations. The government estimated that it would increase trade with Japan by around £15.2 billion.

It also included a ban on data localisation, meaning that UK companies can operate in Japan without having to have a data residency or local server in the country.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has launched a research project aimed at finding new ways to support the UK's semiconductor industry and could establish a national microchip institution to underpin its growth.

It will explore how to improve the development of the UK’s manufacturing infrastructure, bolster supply chain resilience, and provide “better access to prototyping and manufacturing facilities” for businesses.

The DCMS also said it will consider how to support startups specialising in chip design and foster closer ties between industry, customers and government to address “shared challenges”, according to a tender notice for the feasibility study.

The results of the research are expected to inform how the government will deliver on ambitions set out in its upcoming semiconductor strategy - which is scheduled to be published in 2023.

Aimed at unlocking the “full potential” of British microchip businesses, it is hoped the strategy will support job creation across the UK industry and ensure a reliable supply of semiconductors.

The onset of the coronavirus pandemic prompted a period of significant disruption for the global semiconductor industry as production dipped. This disruption raised concerns that the country had grown reliant on a select number of major chip manufacturers based outside of the UK.

A recent report from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) warned that a lack of investment in homegrown semiconductor fabrication plants, known as ‘fabs’, could inhibit the growth of the industry.

“It is not clear to us that the support currently offered by government is at anything like the scale which is needed to make a real difference,” the report warned.

Over the last decade, the UK semiconductor industry has expanded significantly, with global revenue surging by 95% between 2012 and 2021.

During this period, the DCMS noted that the UK has “established a number of major strengths” across chip design, research and compound semiconductors.

Digital Secretary Michelle Donelan said the research will aim to build on this success and ensure the UK maintains its position as a global market leader.

She said: “We rely on semiconductors - they are in everything from our smartphones, kitchen appliances, and cars all the way through to the supercomputers that support our weather reporting, energy sector and countless other areas of our economy.

“In the UK we are leading the world in areas including design and research. We want to build on these successes and keep our semiconductor sector on the cutting edge.

“This study will help us meet our ambition and could lead to a new national institution and greater research facilities.”

National security concerns

The UK’s reliance on non-domestic suppliers has also raised national security concerns that have influenced major acquisitions.

In November, the government informed Nexperia, which owns the UK’s largest fab, that it must sell to “mitigate the risk to national security”.

Nexperia, which is a subsidiary of Shanghai-listed company WingTech, acquired the Newport Wafer Fab production facility in July 2021. The acquisition was met with immediate calls for the government to intervene on national security grounds.

The Commons Foreign Affairs Committee warned that the sale to a Chinese state-backed organisation could “undermine” the UK’s ability to produce compound semiconductors.

Similarly, in February this year, SoftBank abandoned its planned sale of Cambridge-based chipmaker Arm to Nvidia.

When first announced in September 2020, the £29.6bn deal was the largest in the history of the semiconductor industry. The proposed sale faced significant regulatory hurdles in the UK, United States, and European Union.

At the time, the DCMS called for an inquiry into the merger on national security grounds.

Conducted by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the inquiry subsequently ruled that the takeover could lead to a “substantial lessening of competition”.

EU and US-based regulators also argued that the merger could drive chip prices up, reduce competition, and stifle innovation in the industry.

Almost a third of the applications used by the UK government's Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) have gone end of life (EOL), leaving the UK's public sector vulnerable to cyber attacks.

A National Audit Office (NAO) report has found that while the department is focused on digital services, it has no plan in place to replace the outdated and risky software which accounts comprises 30% of all the department's software.

Defra itself has estimated that 76% of its total digital, data, and technology spend is funnelled into maintaining these legacy systems.

Defra has spent over a decade attempting to remediate its legacy applications issue but did not receive adequate funding to do so until the 2021 Spending Review. This allocated £366 million for digital investment between 2022 and 2025. Under current plans, legacy systems will not be totally fixed until 2030.

Legacy software is a cyber security risk because it means the application no longer receives any kind of support from the original developer, including security updates.

It means a hacker has ample time to develop an exploit for a vulnerability in any of these legacy applications. Trying to exploit a supported product is time-sensitive since vulnerabilities are often patched by the vendor before exploits can be developed.

The NAO also stated that the department still falls far short in its digital transformation strategy. It believes the funds are insufficient to reduce the current risk to an “acceptable level”, let alone expand digital transformation across the department.

This is a current pain point, as the department still performs only a third of its 21 million yearly customer transactions digitally.

To achieve a successful digital transformation, the NAO further advised government departments to develop a strategy that puts digital and data considerations at its foundation. In 2021, the NAO stated that there is a “consistent pattern of underperformance” across 25 years of government digital programmes.

Defra is the department within the UK government responsible for the protection of the environment, as well as the food, farming and fishing industries. A great deal of the department’s work relies on digital services, including its duties in disease prevention, maintaining air quality, and overseeing flood defences.

“Government continues to rely on many outdated IT systems at significant cost,” said Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO.

“Defra faces a particularly challenging task in replacing its legacy applications and has begun to tackle it in a structured way.

“The full potential of technology in improving public services and reducing cost to the taxpayer can only be accessed if this programme and others like it across government are delivered effectively”.

As the independent parliamentary body responsible for scrutinising the public spending of Parliament, the NAO has a track record of putting a spotlight on failures in government digital strategy.

In October, it found that the digital projects within the Ministry of Defence (MoD) are undermined by a severe lack of tech skills, and has exposed poor data practices within departments such as HMRC, the ONS and Department for Business.

Poor maintenance of essential applications, or the continued use of applications no longer supported by developers, can present a serious security risk, especially if the applications contain zero-day vulnerabilities.

“This sprawl of applications raises questions about software supply chain risk,” said Michael White, technical director and principal architect at the Synopsys Software Integrity Group.

“Any application selected by IT will likely undergo extensive due diligence, but so-called shadow IT or grey IT projects may skirt this scrutiny - either directly, or via sub-components and platforms which they rely on.

“This could also include open source components which either accidentally or deliberately contain vulnerabilities or malicious code. As the report identifies, responsibility for applying security patches for these ‘orphan’ applications may also pose an organisation-level risk when considering events such as the well-known log4j vulnerability which occurred last year.”

In the US, the Cyber security and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) last year put in place a mandatory patch programme, requiring government agencies to patch identified security exploits within two weeks. The agency keeps a curated catalogue of vulnerabilities that have been exploited in the wild.

Dutch citizens have been urged to prepare emergency disaster kits in case a cyber attack or natural disaster hits the country.

The campaign to prepare the kits is being pushed by the country's national coordinator for security and counterterrorism (NCTV) Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg. He told local media that citizens should be able to survive for two days without water, electricity, or gas in the event that critical infrastructure is compromised.

Dutch citizens were last encouraged to prepare disaster kits back in 2009 but Aalbersberg said the latest awareness campaign was driven partly due to the number of cyber attacks across the globe is increasing.

“The Netherlands is extra vulnerable,” said Aalbersberg to AD. Digital technology in the Netherlands is advanced and many systems rely on it, he said. There’s also a lack of an analogue option to fall back on as a backup.

Aalbersberg also said that as the country has experienced technological development, its resistance to attacks hasn’t developed at the same rate. “The gap between threat and resistance is still too wide,” he said.

The coordinator also warned that startups are being targeted by China and Russia, since larger companies have better digital security. He gave an example of two Russian spies trying to take away Dutch tech, but went to startups instead of larger companies. Aalbersberg said this was because startups are “mainly busy with other things” like putting a product on the market, and view security as something that comes after this phase.

Society also needs to increase its shock resistance, according to the security chief, especially since disaster preparation hasn’t been seen in the Netherlands for a long time, but was common during the Cold War era.

The Netherlands appears to be getting citizens ready in case a cyber attack plunges the country into a blackout, clearly worried about the rise in ransomware and how other countries have been brought to their knees after being hit by these kinds of attacks.

The seriousness of cyber attacks is also taking up officials’ time in the UK, where members of the Cobra crisis management team are dedicating more time to ransomware incidents, according to a report from The Record.

The majority of its meetings are reportedly focused on ransomware attacks in the country, with some saying this demonstrates the government hasn't made substantial progress in neutralising the threat of ransomware.

Cyber attacks on critical infrastructure and entire nations have been hugely impactful in recent years. In May 2021, for example, a ransomware attack shut down one of the main fuel pipelines in the US.

The company that owns the pipeline, Colonial Pipeline, is responsible for 45% of the fuel supplies on the east coast of the country. It was forced to suspend 5,500 miles of pipeline after it fell victim to the cyber attack, and eventually paid hackers $4.4 million to regain access to its systems, although around half was recovered by the FBI.

More recently, in May 2022, Costa Rica declared a state of emergency after being hit by a Conti ransomware attack. The attack hit the country’s treasury, which affected its digital services and forced it to operate manually. Conti demanded a $10 million ransom for the government regain access to its systems.

Remote businesses and homes across the UK will be connected to satellite broadband in a new government trial intended to address unequal coverage of high-speed internet.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced plans to test the effectiveness of satellites in delivering high-speed connectivity in “a dozen” sites considered ‘very hard to reach’, the less than 1% of rural and remote sites where the cost of delivering broadband rises to untenable levels.

Starlink, the satellite broadband arm of aerospace firm SpaceX, has been chosen to support the trial given its already extensive low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation.

For the future of the trial, the government will continue to evaluate other services, and named UK-based satellite operator OneWeb as a potential partner for connectivity in more complex locations.

Test sites include Snowdonia National Park, with the base of the Ogwen Valley Mountain Rescue Organisation (Sefydliad Achub Mynydd Dyffryn Ogwen) and the Ty Cornel outdoor activity facility run by Scouts Cymru both participating. Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire and Wasdale Head in the Lake District were also among the selected locations, while further sites are under review.

The tests will seek to establish the effectiveness of the satellites, as well as the specific benefits of faster connections in remote areas, such as improved communications for rescue teams.

The potential of satellite broadband for rural business connectivity is great, with initial government figures demonstrating that reliable connections as high as 200 Mbits/sec can be established using the technology.

Businesses have also registered interest in satellite solutions. In its response to a consultation on improving broadband for very hard-to-reach premises, published in May, the government stated that 43% of businesses had explored satellite broadband as an alternative to fixed broadband. A further 29% had tried both satellite broadband and fixed wireless access.

“High-speed broadband beamed to earth from space could be the answer to the connectivity issues suffered by people in premises stuck in the digital slow lane,” said Michelle Donelan, secretary of state for the DCMS.

“Ensuring everyone can get a quality internet connection is crucial to our levelling up plans and these trials aim to find a solution to the prohibitively high cost of rolling out cables to far-flung locations.”

In October, the government launched a £15 million competition to encourage UK businesses seeking to enter the satellite internet market, citing the great potential for innovation and job creation within the sector.

Alongside its satellite trial, the government is expanding its broadband outreach scheme Project Gigabit, and has awarded Northern Ireland-based broadband firm Fibrus a £108 million contract to improve fibre connectivity across Cumbria. Initial Fibrus connections are expected by the spring, with construction commencing immediately.

“Using innovative methods to beam broadband to isolated areas, alongside this latest Project Gigabit deal to level up the north of England, will connect thousands more hard-to-reach premises, helping people get and stay connected,” said James Cartlidge, exchequer secretary at the Treasury.

It is hoped that investment in the region will spur opportunities for employment and apprenticeships across Cumbria, and the government is additionally seeking to award contracts in areas such as Cornwall, Norfolk, and Suffolk.

SpaceX continues to launch Starlink satellites into orbit at pace, with its constellation now containing around 3,000 of an FCC-approved total of 12,000 that could eventually provide internet access for much of the world. The firm now has approvals to provide internet to moving vehicles, and has signed both a partnership with Royal Caribbean and a deal with T-Mobile to construct a satellite-based mobile network.

The UK government’s digital transformation is being held back by out-of-date technology, budget constraints, and hiring hurdles, civil servants have said.

Half of all 1,006 surveyed civil servants said that legacy technology is no longer fit for purpose and that it was limited by budget constraints.

Additionally, half of those working on related programmes said that a lack of skills that are especially important for digital transformation is an evident problem, owing to difficulties in hiring the right talent.

37% said they have very few or no skills or knowledge in how AI, machine learning, and automation can be used to improve public service delivery, for example, while 39% lack skills in deploying or migrating apps on cloud infrastructure.

The majority of civil servants (58%) agreed their department is not equipped with the right resources, tools, and skills to use technology to transform public services.

Despite more than three-quarters (78%) reporting interest in receiving training in new digital skills, less than a fifth (19%) said they had any internal or external training in the last two years, the report from Global Government Forum, supported by Google Cloud, revealed.

"Our vision is that by 2025, the UK government will be a transformed more efficient digital government that provides better outcomes for everyone,” said Megan Lee, CEO at the Central Digital and Data Office (CCDO) and head of the Digital, Data, and Technology function at the UK government.

“A central tenet of that mission is in equipping civil servants for a digital future: focused on upskilling digital and data capability and ensuring access to the right data and tools to do the job effectively. CDDO leads the Digital, Data and Technology profession, and we are fully committed to empowering all government departments to attract and build digital talent at scale.”

Lee added that CDDO is meeting the demand to provide digital skills training to civil servants through its roadmap for digital and data. It has committed to upskill at least 90% of senior civil servants on digital and data essentials, as well as deepen the skills of DDaT professionals who will undertake training at least once a year. The roadmap also aims to ensure that all departments meet the definition of “good” for agile ways of working.

The CDDO also launched the Autumn of Digital Learning in September, where senior leaders can access development opportunities and masterclasses.

“And, we’ve launched the Digital and Data Essentials, a core set of capabilities that all civil servants should strive to have. CDDO has also assessed product-centric ways of working across many high-volume services, identifying opportunities to further strengthen the way in which the government uses Agile at scale,” she said.

UK government officials have reportedly met with data centre operators to discuss how to keep them running during any power shortages that might occur during the coming months.

The country is facing a looming energy crisis with reports earlier this month that the National Grid might impose three-hour blackouts in some areas.

On Monday, John Pettigrew, the National Grid chief, said that blackouts will have to be imposed in January and February if electricity generators don’t have enough gas to meet demand, especially if there is a period of cold weather, as reported by Sky News.

The talks between government officials in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) and data centre operators were reportedly held in recent weeks, according to a report from Bloomberg. They centred on allocating diesel for backup generators if the National Grid decides to cut power, and whether data centres should be considered as critical national infrastructure (CNI). Designating the sector as CNI doesn’t come with formal protections but shows the government has officially recognised how important it is.

There are currently draft plans in place, but these weren’t revealed. However, there are contingency plans which could involve other government agencies like the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and the specialised Civil Contingencies Secretariat.

Data centre companies have also asked the Environment Agency to relax a rule so their centres can start diesel generators 15 minutes before an expected blackout, instead of as it begins, which the operators believe would allow safer phasing from one power supply to another. IT Pro has asked the agency for comment.

“Equinix is closely monitoring developments around any impact to power and gas supplies, and has been taking additional measures in light of the war in Ukraine to ensure a good diesel stockholding and various redundant supply chain provisions across its sites, should there be any interruptions to grid availability,” Gary Aitkenhead, senior vice president of EMEA IBX operations at Equinix told IT Pro.

“Equinix data centres are adequately prepared and able to seamlessly go on and off generator power as needed pending potential blackouts," he added. "It is highly unlikely there will be a need to run for more than a few hours, or at worst case a day, on diesel, but Equinix is prepared to run for up to a week following further contingency planning.”

A Microsoft spokesperson said the company is actively monitoring the situation, and the resulting impacts to countries where it operates data centre regions.

"In the event of energy restrictions, we will comply with all government requirements to reduce demand on the energy grid," they added. "We will take the necessary steps to help reduce the burden on local utilities, while working to ensure minimal disruption to our customers and their workloads running on the Microsoft cloud.”

Most enterprises and cloud providers will have some form of backup or generation and power availability, said Philip Dawson, a VP analyst at Gartner. That power availability may be alternate connections, providers, or backup generators, for example. The smaller the business is, however, the smaller the recovery and resilient capabilities will be.

Dawson is most worried about the mid market, medium sized enterprises with their own data centres, as they may not have the redundancy and resiliency built into their data centres that larger enterprises will have installed. He said it might pitch mid market versus enterprise versus provider, and it could produce tactical differences in how each segment of the market is dealing with the power outage, if they are at all exposed to it.

He also advises businesses to look at what elements of their operations in the cloud are mission critical business continuity elements. To prepare for the potential outage, companies should try to prioritise what workloads and applications are really key.

“The way to look at it is what applications you need to have availability. Not a platform, the hardware, or the system running in the cloud, you've got to look at what you require to make your business work and what application, try and think of application delivery and not system delivery,” said Dawson.

It’s important for businesses to find out what they’re running in the cloud, where it’s being run, and what is important. If those systems fail due to power failure, or supply, they’re going to disappear for two or three hours at a time. “You’ve got to make sure that those core platforms, core applications, are running for your business continuity,” he underlines.

Data centre operators could even be looking at a 40% increase in costs due to the energy crisis, and there might not even be a viable solution in the UK for years to come, an analyst said last month.

Tiny Haynes, Gartner senior research director, also said that the impact wouldn't affect every data centre in the same way, since it depends on the facility and operators themselves. Managed service providers may be insulated from cost increases by larger margin, whereas those providing data centre space could be more exposed to power pricing.

GCHQ's director has called on the UK to invest in quantum technology after warning of impending Chinese technology domination.

In a speech made today, Jeremy Fleming underlined that when it comes to technology, the politically motivated actions of the Chinese state are an increasingly urgent problem that must be acknowledged and addressed.

The nation’s security and prosperity is dependent on "mastering quantum capabilities", he said, without clarifying exactly why quantum technology is of such importance.

The UK needs to maintain a mystery of bleeding-edge tech and systems exponentially more powerful than our current digital technologies that push at the edges of known physics, the director added.

Fleming said the UK must continue to make deep investments in the next generation of key technologies or risk compromising national security and prosperity.

He also warned that the UK’s companies, universities, and intelligence agencies cannot afford to be late to the quantum revolution, or to be relaxed about the extent to which others, perhaps especially in China, are watching their progress.

The definition of national security is being changed into a much broader concept by the actions of China, he said, before branding technology a battleground for control, values, and influence.

“We and our like-minded allies see technology as a way to enable greater freedoms, greater prosperity, greater global collaboration,” said Fleming. “And yes, fair competition. But the Chinese leadership’s approach is to also see it as a tool to gain advantage through control: of their markets, of those in their sphere of influence, and of their own citizens.”

Fleming also mentioned that there are wider concerns about China’s actions around the world. An example of this is in the Solomon Islands, where huge Chinese loans are paying for China tech upgrades. The deals countries are making with China have serious strings attached, he said, which could be offers of new technologies like smart cities, which have the potential to export surveillance and data, or demands for new bilateral security treaties.

“In a future crisis, Beijing could exploit information covertly extracted from client economies and governments, but no doubt use its monopoly to demand compliance in international fora,” explained Fleming. “To catch a glimpse of that future, one need only look at how China has already sought to do just this, leveraging its influence over many smaller nations in votes over technology, ethics and foreign policy.”

China's world-leading rate of patent filings was highlighted and used to exemplify the rate at which the country is developing as a technology-first nation. A total of 43% of the world's patents were filed by Chinese nationals in 2019 and 11% of the UK's research output now includes Chinese authors, too.

He also mentioned China’s digital yuan, and said the way it’s being implemented allows the monitoring of citizens and forces companies to use the service. In the future, it could allow the country to partially evade the sorts of financial sanctions currently being applied to Russia, he warned.

Fleming also referred to China’s development of the BeiDou satellite system, a rival alternative to the GPS, and how the government has forced Chinese citizens and businesses to adopt it and how it’s being built into Chinese exports to more than 120 countries. The BeiDou system is the same technology used by Huawei’s new Huawei Mate 50 phone which was revealed last month.

“Many believe that China is building a powerful anti-satellite capability, with a doctrine of denying other nations access to space in the event of a conflict,” he said. “And there are fears the technology could be used to track individuals.”

Fleming also said China is seeking to subvert or redesign global security standards in a bid for control. He pointed to the “New IP” standards submitted by China to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in 2018.

He said that although these standards appeared to come from Chinese industry, the hands of the state were very clear since Chinese tech companies are rarely allowed to move in the space without direction from the government.

The New IP standards proposed would have fundamentally changed some of the principles which underlie the internet, said Fleming. It would reduce interoperability causing fragmentation of systems, and move away from the multistakeholder model, towards greater governmental control, while introducing new tracking methods.

“Thankfully, this proposal has not taken root in the ITU, and the UK had a role in this,” he said.

Aside from investing in quantum technology, Fleming also called for the UK to continue with its deep engagement with the global market. This includes the importance of the chip supply chain, highlighting how important Taiwan is and how the UK cannot recreate the scale of Taiwan’s manufacturing capabilities.

Fleming added that any risks to Taiwan and its chip supply chain have the potential to directly impact the resilience of the UK and global future growth, underlining that this is one example of why the UK tilted its national security and defence efforts towards the Indo-Pacific.

35 startups, SMEs, and scaleups are joining the Cyber Runway accelerator programme, taking on challenges like ransomware, zero-day attacks, and secure authentication.

The programme has been designed to strengthen the UK’s cyber ecosystem and accelerate the growth of a new generation of breakthrough cyber startups to improve national security, stimulate innovation and drive economic growth. It’s part of the government’s mission of making the UK a responsible and democratic cyber power, as laid out in the National Cyber Strategy 2022.

Currently in its second year, Cyber Runway is the largest government-backed cyber startup accelerator in the country. Funded by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, it’s run by Plexal, Deloitte, and the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT).

The 2022 Cyber Runway cohort is set to take on challenges like ransomware, zero-day attacks, secure authentication, incident response, and improving cyber awareness. Its members include CyberMind, which is using AI to help cyber workers deal with their mental health, and Worldr, which secures employee data through zero-trust architectures.

“We are backing businesses on the frontline defending the UK against cyber threats,” said cyber minister Julia Lopez. “Our investment in these innovative British startups helps create skilled jobs and a more diverse workforce, which strengthens our national security as well as our booming tech industry."

45% of the programme’s members are based outside of London and the South East of England. 65% have women in their leadership teams and 28% are run by founders from black, ethnic or minority backgrounds. Cyber Runway will also be delivered in person and virtually to maximise its nationwide reach.

Startups are set to benefit from business masterclasses, mentoring and engineering support from CSIT, technical product development support, and opportunities to connect with international cyber hubs. They will also be able to attend regional events and connect to investors and corporations to fuel growth.

Applications for the second cohort opened on 5 July 2022, after the first round saw 107 entrepreneurs benefit from the initiative. Cyber Runway said that up to 100 more startups would be accepted into the programme which will run over the course of six months.

MI5 and The Alan Turing Institute revealed today they have an ongoing partnership which focuses on applying artificial intelligence (AI) research to confront national security challenges.

The partnership is part of The Alan Turing Institute Defence and Security Programme which was launched in 2017 to ensure a safe, secure, and prosperous society, including the application of AI ethics to defence and security projects.

MI5 has decided to unveil this partnership today to allow it to work more closely with the Alan Turing Institute and its academic stakeholders. The security service often draws on new technologies to help identify and mitigate threats to UK national security and keep the country safe, including the use of data science and AI, it added.

Part of the collaboration supports MI5 in keeping up-to-date with state-of-the-art approaches in AI that can be used to respond more flexibly and more quickly to threats to UK national security. It’s already using AI to keep the country safe, revealed the security service. For example, it uses the technology to help identify dangerous weapons. AI is used to scan and triage images which could contain weapons before being passed to experts to assess the need for further action.

“The UK faces a broader and more complex range of threats, with the clues hidden in ever-more fragmented data,” said Ken McCallum, MI5 director-general. “MI5 has a long and proud history of innovation and use of cutting-edge technology in an ethical way; artificial intelligence is another example of that and a vital capability in MI5’s toolkit.”

“By working with the Alan Turing Institute, MI5 can draw on world-leading expertise to ensure our use of AI keeps pace with the challenges we face, and enables us to keep the country safe,” he added.

As the UK’s national institute for data science and AI, The Alan Turing Institute specialises in the development of high-performing, ethical AI, and offers MI5 the opportunity to make the most of its research and expertise in developing its own AI tools, said the institute. It added that this also means MI5 will be able to contribute more openly to the development of AI in the UK for the wider public benefit.

The UK and Ukraine have signed a new digital trade agreement to help Ukraine rebuild its economy following Russia’s invasion.

The agreement is set to support Ukrainian businesses by cutting red tape and helping them to trade with the UK more efficiently, the government revealed on Tuesday. This will be done through better use of technology, including electronic transactions, e-signatures, and e-contracts.

The agreement will also aim to make it easier for UK companies to work with Ukrainian businesses and support them with their economic recovery. Total trade between the two nations was worth £1.9 billion in 2021, with UK exports of digitally delivered services accounting for 73% of all UK services exported to Ukraine in 2020.

Despite the government citing examples of the technology underpinning the agreement, it's currently unclear what steps will be taken as part of the deal, or when it will be delivered. However, the deal is said to be the result of a direct request from president Zelensky’s government.

“While we fight fearlessly for the freedom of our nation, many Ukrainians also look ahead to how we will rebuild our country,” said Vadym Prystaiko, ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom. “Strengthening our economic ties through this landmark digital trade agreement will support our IT industry, which is set to become a major driver of economic growth for our businesses and cities.”

The Ukrainian government has identified supporting the digital economy as one of its areas of focus for the recovery and reconstruction of the country. The UK is well placed to help with this, since it’s a leader in digital trade, said the UK government.

"Putin’s brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has had devastating human consequences. The UK stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine and will use trade as a force for good to help the country rebuild its modern economy after this barbaric war," said international trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan.

"Our partnership with Ukraine will help them seize the brighter days ahead, and we will continue to do everything in our power to protect Ukrainian jobs, livelihoods and families."

The UK has already removed tariffs as part of the existing UK-Ukraine free trade agreement, supporting Ukrainian businesses and producers to export goods and rebuild their economy. A new digital trade agreement would further strengthen the two nation’s trading relationship, said the UK government.

The IT Ukraine Association and BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, called on organisations around the world in April 2022 to give Ukraine’s tech consultancies serious consideration when tendering for contracts.

The two groups underlined that Ukraine computing specialists are open for business and are ready to fill the gap now that many Western companies no longer work with Russian consultancies.