Weeknote 7.0
It’s been London Tech Week and a LOT happened. Let’s get straight into it!
The London Tech Week That Was
To say that this week has been full on would be a bit of an understatement! Across London there have been conferences, workshops, roundtables, gaggles, meetings, and every other form of gathering, both physical and virtual. All convened to consider the pressing tech questions of the day, and to share the best in new research.
The Government marked this week in multiple ways. In addition to publishing a new strategy, new AI guidelines, and announcing a new digital unit (more on that below), there were speeches from a raft of ministers. Liam Fox welcomed trade delegations from all over the world, who have come to the UK to invest in our growing tech sectors.
At CogX in Kings Cross there were speeches from Jeremy Wright (on skills, the AI sector deal, and diversity and ethics), Chris Skidmore (on the Smart Export Guarantee and renewable energy technology), Oliver Dowden (on technological transformation of public services), and Matt Hancock (on NHS digital and data-driven healthcare). In addition, Sadiq Kahn spoke for Labour, giving a keynote where he offered his strategic vision for London as both a smart city and a global hub for innovation in AI.
Elsewhere Chris Skidmore also found time to also give a speech detailing the Government’s commitment to support fundamental research into emerging technologies, including £1billion for quantum. Caroline Noakes and Margot James held a discussion to discuss immigration and the skills needs for the tech sector. This is part of changes to immigration that the Government announced in a white paper last December; our colleague Joe had some thoughts on the new immigration plan back then, which are still relevant now. And of course the Prime Minister also had her say on London Tech week, where she reflected on her belief that technology is a force for good in the world, calling on the experience of change over the course of her life so far. From Sputnik and room-sized computers then, to AI-based medicine and autonomous cars now and in the near future.
Back home, the Institute celebrated its tenth anniversary with a special conference with talks and discussions that covered the full range of our research interests. From outsourcing and managing public money, to developing people and skills. The conference was book-ended by a keynote from Tharman Shanmugaratnam and a session chaired by our own Gavin, looking at the future of policy making which included some fascinating reflections on the role of technology in changing how government works. The celebration was then capped off with a speech by Sir Mark Sedwill, wherein he reflected on the challenges that future governments will face.
Three things that happened this week:
1. The Institute for Government celebrates its 10th birthday! We used this as an opportunity to look back on the good work that has been done over the past ten years.
2. The Government made a splash, publishing both a Technology Innovation Strategy and a new set of guidelines for implementing AI. Lewis had some thoughts on the strategy, noting that it lacked clarity about any specific commitments. He argued that this reflects both political and technological uncertainty.
3. The Government also announced a new joint DCMS and Cabinet Office Digital Identity Unit, which will “set out the government’s next steps towards enabling the creation of a digital identity market”. Somewhat confusingly, the Prime Minister also announced work to create a Digital Markets Unit. I’m sure the two won’t get confused at all. The speech also announced thousands of new places on conversion courses to study AI and data masters.
People we chatted to
- Marcus had lunch with Chris Parkinson from Vodafone, where the discussion ranged over topics including the internet of things, innovation and the way that both local and central government were adopting tech.
- Gavin enjoyed chatting with his old boss, Jean Seaton, and Claire Ainsley, executive director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, at the first of the Orwell Foundation’s Ministry of Plenty events, which focused on Claire’s book and what technology means for politics and poverty. Lots of discussion — as at Hertie — about building services around the user. On the Saturday, he hosted another event — some quickfire presentations (ten minutes, rather than, say, eight) from Sarah Manavis (on online radicalisation), Dr Lisa Murphy (on health and AI), Abraham Baldry (on threats to democracy), Will Moy (on the future of factchecking) and Rowland Manthorpe (on subjects including predictive algorithms in public services and facial recognition.
What we’re reading and thinking about
- Gavin’s had another whirlwind week and is looking forward to having time to think again soon. He’s had a bit of time to think about the excellent conference on agile governance at Hertie in Berlin last week. Main takeaway: people are often talking about slightly different things when we talk about agile. Is it a project management methodology? Is it something wider? (In Europe, it seems to mean anything in the innovation/innovation lab space.) To what extent are values wrapped up in it? (Could you built a service discriminating against people using agile methods, or are values like openness and inclusion inherent to it?) Do we all need to slow down — do we need a ‘slow government’ movement? (See slow journalism or slow food, for example.) Gavin would still highly recommend Richard McLean’s agile reading list, which focuses more on governance (in guide and accountability terms), as an introduction.
- Marcus has been trying to digest the slew of ideas that CogX threw up. But in particular the talks on Complexity, Information and AI by Thore Graepel (DeepMind), Eric Beinhocker (Institute for New Economic Thinking), and Cesar Hidalgo (Collective Learning Group, MIT Media Lab).
- Lewis has been trying to write up his thoughts from CogX here, prompting micro investigations into probabilistic programming, how human performance on tasks like object recognition is measured (to compare to computer performance), trust law, and other stuff. Will keep adding. Also, this is great on Tim BL’s current proposals to address some of the problems of the Internet — and how no one really seems to care.
What’s coming up next week?
- A quieter week here at the Institute, but we will be hosting an event to discuss the topical question of “What makes a good Prime Minister”. This is also the launch event for a report of the same name.
- We’re also holding an open house and drinks reception for prospective research assistants on Tuesday evening. This is a great opportunity to learn about the Institute, what it’s like to work at a think tank, and more about how policy is made! This is part of the recruitment drive for our next cohort of Research Assistants for the coming Autumn.
- We will also be meeting people, both back at home base, and out and about across London. More on that in next week’s weeknote though.
- There’s some interesting stuff in Parliament too. On Tuesday the Commons DCMS Sub-Committee on Disinformation is taking oral evidence on disinformation in elections. And on Wednesday there is a debate in Parliament on the “use of algorithms in Home Office visa processing”
Any last thoughts?
· As ever, let us know if you have any thoughts or feedback. Email (digital@instituteforgovernment.org.uk) or Twitter or commenting on this or whatever works best for you — it all works for us.
