Success in government, like reputation in business, takes time to establish but can be ruined in an instant. The Department for Science Innovation and Technology, a wholly new ministry established in 2023 by Rishi Sunak, was well on the way to becoming a rare government success. Now it has been abolished, overnight, by Andy Burnham. Compared to venerable government departments like the Treasury and Home Office, it is the departmental equivalent of Liz Truss, briefly occupying an important berth but then dispatched without ceremony. But unlike Liz Truss, its departure is much mourned.
I defy Claude or ChatGPT to detect anything approaching a sensible pattern in this mess
Sunak established the department to make the government focus more on technology policy, and in particular, the march of artificial intelligence. It was a prescient decision by a consistently underrated prime minister. Britain is one of the world’s leading AI nations, both in terms of research and AI start-ups. While we cannot compete with the vast resources of China and America, we are, like our football team, plucky but clear bronze medallists.
In its short tenure, the new department helped tech-minded mandarins establish this country as the most forward-thinking nation in the world on AI policy. Our AI Security Institute is regarded as the leading centre of expertise on AI safety (the Americans turned to the Security Institute when Anthropic’s high-risk Mythos model required testing). The nascent Sovereign AI fund, which DSIT created, is providing much-needed capital for emerging British companies. And DSIT was showing genuine imagination in science spending – sponsoring the building of the UK’s largest super-computer.
