Liz Kendall Warns AI Dependence Risks Britain

liz kendall said Britain risks becoming dependent on a handful of companies controlling vital digital infrastructure as she described AI as the "currency of the future" in a speech yesterday. The science, innovation and technology secretary called for countries such as Britain to work together on a resilient digital ecosystem.

Kendall and Middle Powers

Kendall said the countries she called middle powers should include fellow democracies in Europe, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Oceania. She said they should build a digital system that is not reliant on "the powerful, unaccountable few". Her case was that AI can buy economic, scientific and military advantages.

The warning lands as the United States pulls away from Europe in technological power, while Donald Trump has threatened to bin UK-US trade deals and impose new tariffs. The speech also sits beside wider arguments over who controls digital infrastructure, after Mark Carney this year called at Davos for a strategic alliance of law-abiding, middle-ranking powers.

Peter Mandelson Lecture

Peter Mandelson's last public policy intervention as ambassador was a lecture on the geopolitics of technology only days before he was sacked. Kendall's speech placed the same issue inside the government's own technology brief, making AI sovereignty part of a live policy debate rather than a theoretical one.

For readers, the practical issue is not a product launch or a single rule change. It is whether Britain helps shape the systems that power its own economy and public services, or leaves that leverage in the hands of a small number of firms abroad.