Prime Minister’s speech to London Tech Week 2023.

It’s nice to be again at London Tech Week at what I feel is a second of big alternative.

We’re an island of innovation.

However at a second like this, when the tectonic plates of know-how are shifting – not simply in AI, however in quantum, artificial biology, semiconductors, and rather more – we can not relaxation, happy with the place we stand.

We should act – and act shortly – if we would like not solely to retain our place as one of many world’s tech capitals however to go even additional and make this the perfect nation on the planet to begin, develop, and spend money on tech companies.

That’s my purpose.

And I really feel a way of urgency and accountability to be sure that we seize it, as a result of one in all my 5 priorities is to develop our financial system.

And the extra we innovate, the extra we develop.

However this isn’t nearly economics.

Such as you, I consider that innovation is likely one of the strongest forces for reworking individuals’s lives.

And proper now, there is a chance for human progress that would surpass the commercial revolution in each velocity and breadth.

I consider the UK can obtain this purpose as a result of we begin from a place of power.

We’ve created 134 unicorns within the final decade – third on the planet, behind solely the US and China.

We’re one of the vital digitally literate societies on the planet, with a better proportion of STEM graduates than the US and 4 of world’s prime 10 universities.

We’ve bought extraordinary strengths in Fintech, cyber and artistic industries and engineering biology – the place from the Crick and the Biobank to DeepMind’s Alphafold we’re pushing on the boundaries of what’s attainable in well being.

And the UK is the perfect place in Europe to boost capital with extra invested in tech right here than in France and Germany mixed.

However right this moment, I need to reply a easy query.

What’s the one most essential purpose innovators like you must select this nation?

The reply is management.

Do you belief the individuals in cost to actually get what you’re attempting to do?

With this authorities, and with me as your Prime Minister, you’ll be able to.

Choose us – not by our phrases, however our actions.

It’s this authorities that’s constructing essentially the most pro-investment tax regime, that’s growing public R&D funding to report ranges and that’s making our visa system for worldwide expertise one of the vital aggressive on the planet.

We’re overhauling our itemizing guidelines to make it simpler for corporations to boost public funding, and altering our pensions guidelines to unlock new personal capital.

And we’re altering the way in which authorities itself works.

I created a brand new division centered on science, innovation, and know-how with a mission to do issues in a different way – from bringing in world-leading consultants to taking extra dangers in assist of innovation.

And when the second got here, it was this authorities that acted to rescue Silicon Valley Financial institution.

So right this moment, I’m proud to announce the launch of HSBC Innovation Banking essentially the most vital world tech financial institution mixed with HSBC’s firepower and headquartered right here within the UK.

And naturally, it’s the UK the place Google selected to deliver collectively its whole AI division below the management of a Brit – Demis Hassabis – at Google Deepmind.

And if our purpose is to make this nation the perfect place on the planet for tech AI is unquestionably one of many biggest alternatives earlier than us.

As Chancellor, I doubled the variety of AI scholarships as a result of even again then I recognised the potential of AI as a general-purpose know-how.

Now, with most issues in life, the extra you find out about them, the much less magical they seem however the extra we find out about frontier applied sciences like AI, the extra they widen our horizons.

Already we’ve seen AI assist the paralysed to stroll.

And uncover superbug-killing antibiotics.

And that’s just the start.

Mixed with the computational energy of quantum we could possibly be on the precipice of discovering cures for ailments like most cancers and dementia or methods to develop crops that would feed the whole world.

The probabilities are extraordinary.

However we should – and we are going to – do it safely.

I do know individuals are involved.

The very pioneers of AI are warning us concerning the methods these applied sciences might undermine our values and freedoms by to essentially the most excessive dangers of all.

And that’s why main on AI additionally means main on AI security.

So, we’re constructing a brand new partnership between our vibrant academia, good AI corporations, and a authorities that will get it.

And we’ll do this in 3 ways.

First – we’re going to do innovative security analysis right here within the UK.

With £100 million for our skilled taskforce, we’re dedicating extra funding to AI security than every other authorities.

We’re working with the frontier labs – Google DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic.

And I’m happy to announce they’ve dedicated to present early or precedence entry to fashions for analysis and security functions to assist construct higher evaluations and assist us higher perceive the alternatives and dangers of those programs.

Second – AI doesn’t respect conventional nationwide borders.

So we’d like world cooperation between nations and labs.

Simply as we unite by COP to sort out local weather change so the UK will host the primary ever Summit on world AI Security later this yr.

I need to make the UK not simply the mental residence however the geographical residence, of world AI security regulation.

And third, we’re going to grab the extraordinary potential of AI to enhance individuals’s lives.

That’s why we’re already investing report sums in {our capability} together with £900 million in compute know-how and £2.5 billion in quantum.

And we’re harnessing AI to rework our public providers from saving academics lots of of hours of time spent lesson planning to serving to NHS sufferers get faster diagnoses and extra correct checks.

AI can assist us obtain the holy grail of public service reform: higher, extra environment friendly providers.

So that is our technique for protected AI:

To steer at residence; to guide abroad; and to guide change in our public providers.

All a part of how we meet our purpose of constructing this the perfect nation on the planet for tech.

And let me simply conclude with this ultimate thought.

I used to be not too long ago wanting by a set held by the British Library.

And I noticed a letter from Charles Babbage to the then-Chancellor, courting from the 1830s thanking him for funding his distinction engine – the forerunner of the trendy laptop.

That was a decisive second.

The British authorities broke with the conventions of the time, and for a decade, backed this breakthrough know-how.

We’re at an identical second right this moment.

And I’m decided that when future researchers go to the British Library in 200 years’ time they’ll uncover that this authorities, and all of us right here on this room met this second with the identical braveness, imaginative and prescient, and willpower.

Thanks.