Surviving the chaos

Welcome to... yes, it is only Wednesday.

My first day covering tech policy, February 7th 2023, was also the day Rishi Sunak announced he was creating DSIT. Abigail Morris was made the new department's head of comms and became a big player in getting DSIT off the ground. We had the odd tetchy phone call at the time, but I'm delighted she is writing our main piece today about what the latest machinery of government changes mean for industry and policymakers.

Our webinar at 10am tomorrow will go into this in greater depth.

Happening Today 📆

First a summary of the biggest Whitehall changes announced yesterday impacting AI. A comprehensive list of which parts of DSIT move where is here.

-There will be an AI Taskforce in the Office for the Prime Minister and the Cabinet (OPMC) with a prime ministerial AI adviser to "drive the Government’s overall strategy on AI". DSIT's director general for AI Ollie Ilott is tipped to move to the taskforce. The Cabinet Office will lead on AI adoption in the civil service, while AISI will also be housed there.

-The expanded Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will get the Government Digital Service, including the Incubator for AI, cyber, as well as digital inclusion and skills, information resilience and online harms.

-The Sovereign AI Unit and "emerging tech" parts of DSIT go to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade.

-The Science, Innovation and Technology Committee is likely to revert to its pre-DSIT form where it had a cross-government remit.

Leader of the House of Lords Angela Smith set out the government's rationale for the moves in a statement yesterday. This is the key bit:

"This move recognises that technology and innovation are not separate sectors of our economy – they are the foundation of all future industry, culture, and public service delivery."

She goes on to say that AI needs a "strategic, whole-of-government approach from the centre", hence the new AI Taskforce.

"We should not see science and technology as an isolated issue," Cabinet Office minister Ruth Anderson echoed in her justification to the Lords yesterday afternoon. "By having science and AI sitting separate and away from the rest of government, it means that other departments haven't treated it in the way it should."

The appointment of junior ministers also began overnight. Kate Dearden and Chris McDonald will be ministers of state in the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, while Ian Murray will be a minister in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Old/new AI minister Kanishka Narayan, meanwhile, keeps much of his old areas of responsibilities (minus online safety), but with permission to intervene across government on in areas relating to AI.

This afternoon: Labour peer Neil Davidson will ask the government about the Chinese government's call for international cooperation on AI governance.