'Incumbents are built on lock-in'

Good morning,

My UK road trip is continuing and I'm now in sunny Ayrshire.

Our main piece today is an interview with the co-founder of a startup called Valarian. I first came across the company last year and this month it raised $50m at Series A to expand a platform which it describes as "sovereign intelligence".

On that note, two different visions for how the new government should treat 'sovereignty' are also covered in reports by the Ada Lovelace Institute and BritishAmerican Business this week.

News In Brief 🩳

Lacking leverage: The UK's AI "sovereignty" push is undermined by its MOUs with large tech companies, argues a new Ada Lovelace Institute blog. Called 'Taking Back Control', it wants the government to adopt a "fast follower" strategy using cheaper open-weight models, rather than the latest frontier ones. It also calls for AISI to have statutory powers to test models pre-release.

A different view: US tech investment in the UK should be seen as a "strategic asset" rather than a vulnerability, trade body BritishAmerican Business argues in a report just published. It also calls on the two governments to make binding commitments on data flows, regulatory alignment and international AI standards.

Us too: Anthropic's Claude models hacked into the systems of three organisations during testing, the company has revealed after a similar disclosure by OpenAI last week.

How's it going? Eight in ten Australian teenagers are still using social media, three months after a ban because of ineffective age checks, according to a study by the country's internet regulator.

Happening: The EU has launched a call to build up to seven AI 'gigafactories' on the continent, backed by €10bn of public funding.

AGI by 2029? "We have to take that issue really seriously," Andy Burnham told Jimmy's Jobs of the Future podcast, when asked about AGI by 2029 and said it was one reason he created a ministerial brief for the future of work (Kate Dearden).

You've been charged: The Competition and Markets Authority has opened an investigation into Microsoft's subscription charges. The CMA said it would look at changes to Microsoft 365 plans made from January 2025.

Views wanted: The House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee has opened an inquiry into the Online Safety Act's effectiveness. It will look at how Ofcom has enforced the Act and how new online harms have emerged with AI. Send your evidence by September 7th.