Local MP Alan Mak says that the Labour Government's AI plan is not good enough and is letting the country down.
In his role as Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, he spoke in Parliament and told his Government counterpart Peter Kyle that the delayed plan is "analogue government in the digital age - slow, uninspiring and not good enough for Britain".
He added: "Our country deserves the best, but Labour has let Britain down again."
Mr Mak went on: "Last week, the Chancellor fled the country. As she headed east, our economy went south. Labour promised growth but it has delivered failure.
"It has published an underwhelming plan three months late. It has punished our tech workers with the National Insurance jobs tax. It has saddled our tech sector with red tape and more quangos and it aligns itself with the EU when everybody else is saying no."
He said the previous Conservative Government had identified the opportunities of AI early and acted decisively. But one of Labour’s first actions on entering government was to cut £1.3 billion of funding for Britain’s first supercomputer and AI research.
"We kept Britain out of the EU’s anti-growth regulatory regime, enabling our tech sector to flourish. In contrast, the Secretary of State is on record praising the EU’s approach to AI, which even President Macron rejected.
"We also launched the incubator for AI, which led on groundbreaking work to improve productivity, and the gov.uk chatbot.
"We also provided £500 million for AI compute, because our AI sector requires cutting-edge computing power, as well as more energy to power data centres. Labour’s energy policy is taking our country to the brink of blackouts."
Mr Mak said it was a Conservative Government who organised the world’s first AI safety summit and delivered the world’s third largest AI market, fostering an environment in which Sir Demis Hassabis won the Nobel prize last year.
"Even the Prime Minister admitted that when it comes to AI, Britain starts with a position of strength.
"The bad news is that Labour is already squandering the world-leading AI position that we built up for Britain."
