Kanishka Narayan has become the first UK minister for artificial intelligence to sit at the cabinet table, a promotion that arrives as new prime minister Andy Burnham reshapes Whitehall around the technology.
Narayan, the MP for the Vale of Glamorgan and until this week a junior minister for AI and online safety, said Burnham had asked him to attend cabinet “as minister for AI, a sign of his deep commitment to AI’s importance.”
The elevation coincides with the scrapping of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), the body that had steered Britain’s pro-innovation AI rules and its push for homegrown compute.
Its remit has been folded into a new Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade under Jonathan Reynolds, with online safety and digital duties moving to other departments.
The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!Burnham took office on 21 July, and the reshuffle claimed several senior figures. Liz Kendall, Narayan’s former boss as technology secretary, left her post, while Lord Patrick Vallance stepped down as science minister after nearly a decade in government, citing personal reasons.
