5 questions about the "AI opportunities action plan"

What the lobby should have asked.

The Prime Minister standing in front of a robot arm of some sort.

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If you want to understand the government’s thinking on artificial intelligence, then I’m not sure GB News is the best place to start.

Yesterday the “AI Opportunities Action Plan” was published. It’s an independent report that was commissioned by the government to make recommendations on what Britain should do to seize the opportunities presented by the new technology – and it is worth taking seriously.

The plan was written by Matt Clifford, the chair of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA),¹ and his 50 recommendations are likely to shape what the government’s long term AI plans.²

So it’s a big deal, which is perhaps why Keir Starmer himself chose to front the launch of the report, and promised to make Britain a “great AI superpower”. After a short speech, the PM launched into a Q&A with political journalists. And this was when GB News’s Christopher Hope chose to ask maybe the dumbest question it was possible to ask at that moment:

“Will Rachel Reeves be your Chancellor at the next election?”.³

[heavysigh.jpg]⁴

Sadly, scientists are still working on a cure for lobby-brain.⁵ But luckily in the meantime there is me – a moderately nerdy man who at least knows a little bit about the policy substance in the report.⁶

So here’s my suggestions for five actually meaningful questions about the AI plan that the lobby journalists present could have asked instead.