Good morning. Is it worth a 100-mile train ride from London to England’s second city, Birmingham, to hear the former U.K. prime minister talk about the AI revolution? Despite my original train being cancelled (this is Britain) and a mad dash from the main Birmingham rail station to the venue to be there in time (through a hail storm)—it turns out, yes.
Rishi Sunak was prime minister from 2022 until 2024—when he was defeated by Keir Starmer. Although they come from different parties (Sunak is a Conservative, Starmer leads the Labour Party), they are surprisingly close on the issue of AI development (more and faster, please). The U.K. business department regularly contacts Sunak to ask for advice.
Sunak is considered an expert on technology and is U.S.-friendly, which is key to creating AI momentum in Europe. He has an MBA from Stanford and is an advisor to Goldman Sachs, Microsoft and Anthropic.
In front of an audience of hundreds of smaller business leaders, Sunak laid out some golden rules for AI application:
Don’t think of the technology first, think about what your business needs.
