Building a Safer, More Secure Britain in the age of AI

Thank you Peter, and thank you to the entire team at Imperial College for hosting us today. 

Two hundred years ago, Britain was deep in the midst of the Industrial Revolution.

Vast new industries had been created, fortunes were being made, new technologies were changing the fabric of everyday life, profoundly. 

The benefits of that revolution though were not shared fairly and widely. Far from it. 

In mills and factories across the country, children were being sent to work in horrifying conditions. 

Our parliament had passed some laws to protect them, but those laws achieved little because the state lacked the capability to enforce them.

And so in 1833, a factory inspectorate was created - initially just four inspectors - now responsible for thousands of mills. 

It was a modest beginning, and insufficient to the scale of the challenge, but it established a deeply important principle. 

When technology changes the balance of power in society, the government has to protect those who bear the costs. 

Crucially, to do so means more than simply passing new laws. It means creating the institutions with deep expertise to act. [POLITICAL]

Progress must serve the people whose work has made it possible. 

Technological change should serve human dignity. 

The state has a responsibility to ensure that its benefits are shared.

We are, once again, living through a technological revolution whose consequences will be felt for generations.

As we cross the threshold into the age of super intelligence. 

The choices we make now matter. And so I am making a simple choice: 

Machines that help scientists discover new medicines, machines that give care workers more time with the people who depend on them, machines that help British businesses become more productive.

Above all, machines that leave us, human beings, in charge.

But if that is our defining belief, we must be prepared to put it into swift action. And we must do so now, meeting this critical moment.