Lessons from Down Under

Happy Wednesday, I'm typing away to the sweet sound of my bathroom being ripped out. Wishing you all quieter days.

Happening Today 🗓️

What we've learned: The Science, Innovation and Technology Committee holds a mammoth evidence session at 9:30am on social media and chatbot age restrictions, including evidence from Australia's eSafety commissioner. More below.

In Parliament: MPs will debate government support for British tech companies at 2:30pm (I'll report back tomorrow if it's interesting). Expect to hear more about that next week when chancellor Rachel Reeves delivers her "Mais Lecture". The Lords will discuss more co-operation with the EU on digital rule-making this afternoon.

Union reps: The TUC hosts a forum on collective bargaining around AI as part of its strategy to shift power on AI in the workplace.

One to watch: The government will start releasing WhatsApp messages and emails from Peter Mandelson today, The Times reports.

News In Brief 🩳

Yum: Think of AI as a "five-layer cake", Nvidia boss Jensen Huang wrote in his blog, arguing it would create tonnes of well-paid jobs.

Getting the old gang back: London VC firm Hiro Capital co-led a $1 billion investment in ex-Meta man Yann LeCun's new venture. Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI) plans to develop world models rather than LLMs. Nick Clegg, now a general partner at Hiro Capital, said: "I have known, and admired, Yann for many years and look forward to supporting him and his outstanding team at AMI as they start their important work in earnest."

AI at war: Meta must do more to combat AI-generated fakes on its platform, especially during conflicts, its Oversight Board said.

Lessons from Australia

Australia's eSafety commissioner believes that the world's first social media ban is not a "complete solution", but it is designed to "allow children to be children, just a little longer".

It's early but: In her first published statement since the country enforced curbs in December, Julie Inman Grant, wrote to the Science Innovation and Technology Committee: "The impact of social media minimum age will be measured over years, not weeks or months, and its effect will likely be generational."

"Delaying access to social media accounts for under 16s is not a complete solution to all online safety concerns. Through regulation, education, collaboration and innovation, Australia can help shape a digital future that is safer, smarter and more accountable — and allow children to be children, just a little longer."

Let kids be kids: Inman Grant will be giving evidence to the committee at 10:50am today along with Amy Orben, a Cambridge academic who wrote a report for the UK government last year which argued more evidence was needed to show harmful impacts of social media on healthy children.

The early signs: The UK government is setting up a panel to look at evidence from Australia. The early signs are that around 4.7 million accounts held by under-16s have been closed and public support remains high, but there is a legal challenge against it and scepticism that it can actually work.

Before that: MPs will also hear from Health Professionals for Online Safety and Parentkind, who are both in favour of a social media ban. That will be followed by evidence from those more sceptical of any ban, including Beeban Kidron, the chair of the 5Rights Foundation.

Sovereignty, defined

“Is it any wonder that people are feeling insecure?” asked Newcastle MP Chi Onwurah as she opened the debate on technology sovereignty in Westminster Hall yesterday. The debate was not meant to find a definition of tech sovereignty, but plenty of MPs offered their thoughts. For Labour MP Samantha Niblett it was “the ability to make deliberate choices in our own interests, according to our shared values”.

Inspired by another small island: Shadow tech secretary Julia Lopez said sovereignty was about "resilience and influence”. “How do we make ourselves an indispensable part of any critical supply chain in the way Taiwan and the Netherlands have done in relation to chips?”

Boo to US: Lopez, Niblett and many others raised their concerns about public sector contracts to US tech giants. Milton Keynes MP Emily Darlington argued those government contracts were not helping economic growth, while fellow Labour MPs Gordon McKee and Anneliese Dodds called for closer collaboration with Europe. The Lib Dems' tech spokesperson Victoria Collins wanted a “bold strategy” on tech sovereignty.

More measured: Responding for the government, AI minister Kanishka Narayan described sovereignty as a “state’s ability to have strategic leverage”. “It is to take the best tools the world has to offer today, but also to shape the rest, and ultimately to make that which is critical here in Britain,” he said. Narayan said the soon-to-be-launched Sovereign AI Unit would focus on investments in embodied AI, novel compute, AI for science and novel model architecture. 

That's all for now, thanks for reading and back tomorrow,

Tom