UK won’t sell itself for AI investment: Minister

Minister for Artificial Intelligence Kanishka Narayan said the UK will not trade dependence on foreign tech for AI investment.

Narayan set out the position in a speech at Imperial College London on Monday (12 October), where he said Britain must build its own AI capability to keep the public safe.

“We want the world’s leading companies investing here, but we will not accept dependence as the price of that investment,” said Narayan.

“Nor should we build infrastructure simply because a company wants it. We must be clear about what Britain needs and what our people receive in return,” he added.

Narayan said the government will back British capability through its Sovereign AI programme and its AI Hardware Plan.

He said much of the technology that will shape the UK’s economy, public services and national security comes from outside the country.

Narayan described this as a question of national security and a question of democratic power.

“If the British state cannot exercise meaningful control over the technologies on which our country depends, neither can the people that it represents,” said Narayan.

Narayan pointed to James Callaghan’s government, which backed chipmaker Inmos with £50 million of public investment in 1978.

He said Inmos’s work in Bristol and Newport helped establish an industrial legacy that remains important to South Wales’s semiconductor industry.

Narayan also credited Britain’s early lead in personal computing with giving rise to Arm, now one of the world’s most important semiconductor design companies.

“The bitter lesson of the past is that an early lead in technology is not the same as retaining the power to shape its future,” said Narayan.

Early access to the latest AI models

Narayan said the government worked with the US government and AI labs in recent weeks to keep pre-release access to the most powerful models for the AI Security Institute.

He confirmed the institute’s scientists are now evaluating the latest generation of models, including Gemini 4 Argon, to identify risks early and test safeguards.

Narayan added that Britain will lead early research into hardware-enabled verification of AI capabilities, drawing on its expertise in semiconductor design.

He also told AI developers to investigate unexpected behaviours and not to release systems if they cannot adequately control the risks.

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