Last Thursday, I was in Salford for a CyberFirst event.
Hundreds of girls from across Greater Manchester were there.
Some of them were busy playing e-sports, hidden behind VR goggles.
Others were programming robots – or learning how to pitch a tech business.
But all of them said the same thing.
They were excited for the future they were starting to see. And what it meant for them
What really struck me was their ambition, hope and sheer enthusiasm.
It was as humbling as it was inspirational: but it made me think.
In government, we spend so much time talking about risk.
What happens if reform goes wrong?
Who is responsible – and who do we hold to account?
We often talk about making the state feel more like a start-up.
Less slow and static.
More agile and active.
But we have unique obligations to our citizens that we simply cannot ignore.
Duties to defend our national security and protect public health.
To make our streets safer and borders stronger.
It is understandable that these obligations might make us more cautious about change.
But, when countries or institutions become preoccupied with avoiding risk, they risk resisting innovation.
They might delay reform.
They might grasp too tightly to the here and now…
…and lose sight of the possibilities tomorrow could bring.
When this happens, caution slides into complacency.
Incrementalism gives way to inertia.
Worrying about getting every aspect of change right becomes fear of change itself.
And fearing the challenge of change is the fastest route for a great nation to become mired in stagnation.
When I spoke at London Tech Week last year, that’s what I saw.
Our citizens, they wanted change.
The sector wanted change.
But a refusal to face up to the risks change brings – or face down resistance to it…
…meant that government after government were stuck with a model we all knew was failing.
Suddenly, the real risk wasn’t trying something new.
It was doing nothing at all.
People waited months for hospital appointments.
Young people couldn’t find a good job in the town they called home.
Businesses unable to innovate, unable to invest, or unable to grow.
Stifled by a regulatory regime that was stuck in the past.
Unsure about whether to waste time applying for government contracts – because they always seemed to favour the same old suspects.
Undecided about whether to stay here in the UK – because they just couldn’t access the capital they needed to grow.
Too often in the last decade, Britain felt like a country short on ambition, long on apathy.
Where optimism shrank in the face of opposition.
On this stage last year, I said it was time for a change.
Time to seize the power of technology.
And wield it to deliver us towards a better future.
That is exactly what we’ve done.
I said we’d tear up planning rules.
And we have, making it easier to build the infrastructure that powers our digital economy.
I said we’d radically reform regulation.
And we have, cutting the time it takes to get new products and services onto the market and into people’s hands.
I said we’d design new digital tools with a streamlined state and make engaging with government easier than it’s ever been before.
And we have, from a digital driving licence and an app that will put public services into people’s hands.
To a new tool that will digitise decades-old planning records in minutes, slashing the time it takes to make decisions and get millions of new homes built right across our country.
And a platform that lets people in the public sector rate and review tech products, saving over a billion by helping councils and schools get better deals faster.
Now none of that has been without risk.
In early trials, the government chatbot we built started speaking French.
I’m relieved to tell you that, after a brief flirtation with life across the Channel, it’s firmly back on British soil.
But – even if its identity crisis had lasted a little longer – how many people would rather we’d stopped at the first sign of trouble?
What’s a bonjour here, an au revoir there….
… compared to hours spent on hold, waiting to work out whether your benefit payment has been made and made on time?
Trawling through webpage after webpage to work out what you need to do to start a business?
Because our choice actually was a simple one.
Towards a future that is bright, bold, but risky.
Or back to more of the same: stagnation and a slow but certain slide into decline.
Today, we find ourselves at another critical moment.
The risks we take – and the investments we make – will determine the path our country follows in the decades to come.
And we must once again seize the opportunities in front of us with courage and conviction.
With a record £86 billion in funding for R&D, that is exactly what this government is doing.
For the first time, our modern industrial strategy will include a dedicated digital and technologies sector plan.
Building on our strengths in 6 technologies with the greatest potential for growth:
From AI, advanced connectivity and cyber security…
… right through to engineering biology, quantum, and semiconductors.
Behind that plan is a very clear mission.
To build a faster, fairer economy. A society that offers opportunities for all.
One where we don’t settle for buying these technologies off the shelf.
We make them here.
And we use them to shape a better future for every citizen.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister unveiled £1 billion in backing for our bid to increase our country’s compute power twentyfold by the end of the decade.
Today, I can go further.
A new partnership between my department, Imperial College and the World Economic Forum will see London host the new Centre for AI-Driven Innovation.
This is the first World Economic Forum Global Centre to be based right here in Britain.
Focused on accelerating the adoption of AI, it will ensure that we can embed AI across our economy and put it to work for working people.
And this is just the start.
Boston might be the birthplace of biotech.
But – with Google DeepMind on one side and the Crick on the other – King’s Cross is emerging as a global powerhouse for AI-driven drug discovery.
Today, we’re launching a new project, OpenBind, to create the world’s largest database explaining how drugs interact with the proteins they target.
20 times bigger than all the data collected worldwide over the last half a century, OpenBind will provide an exceptionally detailed picture of how diseases work.
And it could cut the cost of developing new treatments by up to £100 billion.
The results for the health of our people, our nation and our economy could be revolutionary.
As Demis Hassabis said himself, this is a brilliant initiative for UK science.
But initiatives like this will only succeed if we can attract top global talent.
Our tech success story wouldn’t have been possible without brilliant people choosing time and time again to call Britain home.
In an ever more competitive world, we simply cannot afford to lose that status.
So, we’ll be introducing a new scheme to attract the brightest and best brains to Britain.
Today, I can announce that we’re working with Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) and Pillar to double Encode AI for Science Fellowships and get top AI talent from around the world working in UK labs.
We’re also launching Turing AI Global Fellowships, which will bring AI experts from across the world to the UK and support them to carry out cutting-edge research.
At the same time, we’re starting a national skills drive at home, giving over a million students the chance to start careers in AI.
And creating a new generation of British leaders as our country enters the digital economic age.
Leaders just like the young people I met in Salford.
Talking to them about their hopes for the future, I couldn’t help but think about my own journey through education
Struggling with dyslexia, my teachers didn’t see any potential in me.
I was held back in remedial classes, I left at 16 with no qualifications to my name.
No sense of what the future would hold.
It wasn’t until I got a job at the Body Shop.
Until I met Anita Roddick.
And she saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself.
Sending me out to give speeches for her.
That I got over my fear of public speaking.
I then went to university.
And my life began to change.
I choose to tell that story.
Not because I think it’s unique.
I tell it because I think it’s all too common in this country.
And I think it says something about what is at stake right here today.
This government don’t take risks lightly.
Nor do we pursue change for change’s sake.
We choose the path of progressive change. To build a modern economy and opportunistic society.
We do so because any alternative leaves Britain poorer, weaker, more vulnerable in a complex world.
Less able to promote and protect our prosperity and security for all our citizens.
In the last year, the work of progressive change has begun.
But we will only succeed if you take risks, too.
If you choose to join us in transforming Britain for the better.
As the place you pick to build new data centres.
Or train new AI models.
The country you choose when you’re developing life-saving drugs.
Or designing the next generation of chips.
A bolder, brighter future for Britain is in our hands.
We’ve spent the last year getting the foundations right.
Now, it’s our opportunity to build.
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