How Labour should talk about AI

Happy Wednesday and an especially warm welcome to all the competition lawyers who signed up after yesterday's story.

Happening Today 🗓️

How to talk to voters: Campaign group Labour Digital is presenting mammoth polling on what Britain thinks about tech at an event in Parliament this evening. More below.  

At the Excel: Tech Show London begins today. Hannah Fry and Louis Theroux open the two-day event.

In Parliament: It is the first PMQs at midday since the U.S. strikes on Iran and Labour’s massive by-election loss in Gorton and Denton, so plenty to talk about.

News In Brief 🩳

Pedal to the metal: British autonomous vehicle champion Oxa has raised $103m to develop its physical AI and robotics technology. Almost half of the Oxford company's Series D round ($50m) came from the publicly funded National Wealth Fund.

Breakthroughs wanted: UKRI is putting up £40m for researchers to work on AI breakthroughs in science, transport and healthcare. The "fundamental AI research lab" is modelled on Aria and AI minister Kanishka Narayan told the FT it was a "long-term investment in the brilliant minds who will keep the UK in the AI fast lane". Deadline to apply is March 31.

Dial it down: A trial by National Grid and Nvidia shows data centres can quickly adjust power consumption during peak periods, easing demand on the grid, Bloomberg reports.

This is how we'll do it: When the consultation into teenagers' social media and AI chatbot use ends this summer, ministers want to make changes quickly. To do that they're proposing broad powers, according to government amendments laid yesterday to the Children's Wellbeing Bill. They give the Secretary of State power to force internet service providers (not platforms) to restrict access to the internet by age, time of day and the amount of time each day.

Where Labour should go next on tech

Tech secretary Liz Kendall spent 90 minutes explaining DSIT's policies to the Lords yesterday, but she only talked about the practical, public benefits of AI in the last few minutes. Polling out today shows she should have got there much sooner.

This might help: Labour Digital is presenting research from polling last year with More In Common and the New Britain Project in Parliament tonight. It breaks down attitudes to tech by constituency. It shows Labour needs to centre its AI messaging around people’s everyday lives, Neil Ross, industry chair of Labour Digital said.

A tale of two countries: Optimism about technology’s impact is sharply split between urban and rural. The most tech-optimist constituencies are in London and university cities. Post-industrial and rural parts of Britain, including most of Wales and Scotland (outside the central belt) are far more sceptical. The map is stark:

What it means: That divide has "real political implications," explained Anna McShane, Director of the New Britain Project. "It means a single national message on technology simply won’t land the same way everywhere, in some places you lead with ambition, in others you lead with reassurance.”

Lessons learnt: When it came to power in 2024, Labour didn't do this. It saw tech as an economic growth story, with the bullish tech secretary Peter Kyle trumpeting massive foreign investment figures around AI infrastructure. This, as I wrote in May last year, didn't land.

Different messengers: The reshuffle at DSIT in September, with Liz Kendall and Kanishka Narayan coming in, saw a change in messaging. Labour's tech story is now about spreading economic benefits across the country. There has been a focus on announcing AI Growth Zones in the party's post-industrial heartlands and boasts about them creating 15,000 jobs (maybe eventually), but Labour doesn't have the luxury of time to see infrastructure benefits filter down.

Show don't tell: Politically, it needs to point to the immediate everyday: hospitals where cancer-death rates are falling because of AI-detection methods, councils whose planning approvals are faster thanks to a government in-house tool, time saved by thousands of police officers and social workers thanks to using basic apps.

“The main takeaway from this polling is that technology in and of itself won’t win votes, it’s what it does that matters," McShane said. "If you can show how it makes people’s lives easier, services more reliable, or the economy fairer, voters are open. If you just sell the innovation for its own sake, they’ll switch off."

On it: Kendall was at her best in front of the Lords on Tuesday afternoon when giving these examples: a school in her constituency using AI tutors to help disadvantaged kids catch up, a job centre in Wales cutting queues by letting AI write CVs.

In startup mode: Kendall also told peers they had named Barnsley a "tech town" to show how AI and technology can improve an area, but like the examples above, these are pilots. Labour needs to scale much faster.

Thanks for reading, back tomorrow.

Tom