“AI has great power to make any country a global leader,” said UK PM Rishi Sunak at the inauguration of London Tech Week 2023. LTW is scheduled to take place at the Queen Elizabeth II Center from 12-Jun 14. Speaking on the first day of the event, the UK Prime Minister spoke on the growing innovation in the technology sector and how it is overtaking any other industry in the world. The United Kingdom ranks fourth in the Global Innovation Index and UK Tech and Digital Ecosystem Value. to exceed $1 trillion in 2022, more than 17 times its value ten years ago.
Britain is the third country in the world to cross this milestone after the US and China. Rishi Sunak said that any country can become a global leader by being on top of technology. He further said that Artificial Intelligence, even if facing skepticism from its founders, helped the world defeat COVID-19 and above all, paralyze war. While people fear loss of jobs as AI takes center stage, he said that AI can help in the healthcare and food industries.
“It is great to be back at London Tech Week, which I think is a huge opportunity. We are an island of innovation. But at a moment like this, when the tectonic plates of technology are shifting – not only AI in quantum, synthetic biology, semiconductors and much more – we cannot rest, satisfied with where we stand” said Rishi Sunak.
PM Rishi Sunak @ London Tech Week https://t.co/ES8WUC8PDX– Prime Minister of Britain (@10DowningStreet) June 12, 2023
UK tech industry
The UK is one of the leading countries in the world as far as technology companies are concerned. Britain has produced more unicorns than Germany, France and Spain combined. Rishi Sunak said, “We have created 134 unicorns in the last decade – third in the world, behind only the US and China.”
“We are one of the most digitally literate societies in the world, with a higher percentage of STEM graduates than the US and 4 of the top 10 universities in the world. We’ve got extraordinary strengths in fintech, cyber and creative industries and engineering biology – where from Crick and BioBank to DeepMind’s AlphaFold, we’re pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in health,” he said.
The UK was the 5th largest digital technology services exporter in the world in 2019 with £23.3 billion (behind India, the US, China and Germany). The UK recorded a trade surplus of £125.5bn in digitally delivered services in 2020.
“With technology surpassing any other industry, AI can help a country become a global leader” Rishi Sunak.@Arjit_Garg reports from #LondonTechWeek#LTW2023 #IndiaUKTech @biztradegovukin @LDNTechWeek pic.twitter.com/slMlcAmMd6— Zee News English (@ZeeNewsEnglish) June 12, 2023
technology related jobs
The UK, which is a huge hub for students and professionals from across the world, and especially from India, is working to ease the visa system for talent from the technology industry, Rishi Sunak said. The UK-India investment relationship supports more than half a million jobs in both economies. He also said that his government has created a new department for science and technology. Furthermore, with companies such as Google and HSBC opening their AI and innovation divisions in the UK, this will enable a focused approach towards jobs in these sectors.
“We must act – and act quickly – if we want to not only maintain our status as one of the world’s tech capitals, but also to go further and make it the best place for tech businesses to start, grow and develop. And want to make it the best country in the world to invest in. That’s my goal,” Sunak said. “We will make Britain the best country in the world when it comes to technology,” he said.
Security concerns over AI
Rishi Sunak also addressed concerns over security risk and job risk associated with the growing popularity of Artificial Intelligence. He said, “I know people are worried. The very pioneers of AI are warning us about the ways these technologies could undermine our values and freedoms through the most extreme risks of all. And so being a leader on AI also means being a leader on AI security.”
Sunak gave a three-point formula to deal with the security aspect of Artificial Intelligence. “So, we are building a new partnership between our vibrant academics, brilliant AI companies and the government that gets it. And we’ll do it in three ways,” Sunak said.
“First – we’re going to have cutting-edge security research here in the UK. With £100 million for our specialist workforce, we’re devoting more money to AI security than any other government. We’re leading labs – Google Working with DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic.
Second – AI does not respect traditional national boundaries. That’s why we need global cooperation between nations and laboratories. Just as we unite through the COP to tackle climate change, the UK will host the first ever summit on global AI security later this year. I want the UK to be not only the intellectual home but also the geographic home of global AI security regulation.
And third, we are going to seize the extraordinary potential of AI to improve people’s lives. That’s why we are already investing record amounts in our capacity, including £900 million in compute technology and £2.5 billion in quantum.”