PM Rishi Sunak recently made a distinctive gesture to commemorate London Tech Week. He took to Twitter and shared a photo of himself standing next to the iconic door of 10 Downing Street. What made the photo unique was the binary code displayed on the door instead of the usual address digits. The sequence of numbers, "01001100, 01010100, 01010111," translated to "LTW," representing London Tech Week. This creative approach garnered significant attention and engagement on social media platforms.
London Tech Week, held from June 14-16, has emerged as a prominent event on the global tech calendar, attracting founders, investors, policymakers, and thought leaders to delve into the future of technology. Sunak's active participation in the event underscored the government's recognition of its significance and demonstrated their commitment to fostering innovation and technological advancement.
The theme for this year's London Tech Week, "The Future of Tech," aptly reflected the rapidly evolving digital landscape, encompassing the growth of AI-powered technologies and the increasing urgency for robust cybersecurity measures. Panel discussions covering artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, blockchain, and sustainability provided a platform for experts to exchange ideas, share experiences, and address the critical challenges faced by the industry. The event's emphasis on these topics showcased its dedication to addressing the pressing issues that shape the future of technology.
In his opening speech at the London Tech Week 2023, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak emphasised that in a moment like this, when the tectonic plates of technology are shifting - not just in AI, but in quantum, synthetic biology, semiconductors, and much more - we cannot afford to rest, satisfied with where they stand. According to him, it is imperative to act quickly and decisively becomes paramount if we want not only to retain our position as one of the world's tech capitals but to surpass it, making UK the country the best in the world to start, grow, and invest in tech businesses. This ambitious goal drives their sense of urgency and responsibility, especially considering that economic growth is one of the UK’s top priorities.
Starting from a position of strength
Sunak firmly believes that innovation is a powerful force capable of transforming people's lives, and he perceives an unprecedented opportunity for human progress that could even surpass the industrial revolution in terms of speed and impact. The United Kingdom, starting from a position of strength, highlights achievements in the tech sector, including the creation of 134 unicorns in the past decade, ranking third globally behind only the US and China. The PM also emphasised the highly digitally literate society, with a higher percentage of STEM graduates than in the US and four universities ranked among the top 10 in the world.
Why innovators should choose their country, and their answer is leadership
The UK government recognises the significance of fintech, cyber and creative industries, as well as engineering biology, where they push the boundaries of what is possible in healthcare through institutions like the Crick and the Biobank, as well as DeepMind's Alphafold. Moreover, the UK boasts an advantageous environment for raising capital, with more tech investments made there than in France and Germany combined. However, the key question they aim to address is why innovators should choose their country, and their answer is leadership.
“As Chancellor, I doubled the number of AI scholarships because even back then I recognised the potential of AI as a general-purpose technology. Now, with most things in life, the more you learn about them, the less magical they appear but the more we learn about frontier technologies like AI, the more they widen our horizons. Already we’ve seen AI help the paralysed to walk. And discover superbug-killing antibiotics. And that’s just the beginning,” Sunak said.
Strategy for safe AI
He further added, “So, we’re building a new partnership between our vibrant academia, brilliant AI companies, and a government that gets it. And we’ll do that in three ways. First – we’re going to do cutting-edge safety research here in the UK. With £100 million for our expert task force, we’re dedicating more funding to AI safety than any other government. We’re working with the frontier labs - Google DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic. And I’m pleased to announce they’ve committed to giving early or priority access to models for research and safety purposes to help build better evaluations and help us better understand the opportunities and risks of these systems.
“Second – AI doesn’t respect traditional national borders. So we need global cooperation between nations and labs. Just as we unite through COP to tackle climate change so the UK will host the first ever Summit on global AI Safety later this year. I want to make the UK not just the intellectual home but the geographical home, of global AI safety regulation.
“And third, we’re going to seize the extraordinary potential of AI to improve people’s lives. That’s why we’re already investing record sums in our capability including £900 million in compute technology and £2.5 billion in quantum. And we’re harnessing AI to transform our public services from saving teachers hundreds of hours of time spent lesson planning to helping NHS patients get quicker diagnoses and more accurate tests. AI can help us achieve the holy grail of public service reform: better, more efficient services.”
