When the U.K. hosted the world's first AI Safety Summit last November, Rishi Sunak, the then Prime Minister, said the achievements at the event would "tip the balance in favor of humanity." At the two-day event, held in the cradle of modern computing, Bletchley Park, AI labs committed to share their models with governments before public release, and 29 countries pledged to collaborate on mitigating risks from artificial intelligence. It was part of the Sunak-led Conservative government's effort to position the U.K. as a leader in artificial intelligence governance, which also involved establishing the world's first AI Safety Institute--a government body tasked with evaluating models for potentially dangerous capabilities. While the U.S. and other allied nations subsequently set up their own similar institutes, the U.K. institute boasts 10 times the funding of its American counterpart. Eight months later, on July 5, after a landslide loss to the Labour Party, Sunak left office and the newly elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer began forming his new government.

Barring an asteroid strike, Keir Starmer is going to be the UK prime minister in three days. Given the lead in polling, I'd probably bet on him over an asteroid, too. Labour will come into government with a broken state, a flatlining economy and no money. A thin manifesto and enormous parliamentary majority means the party will almost certainly end up stretching further afield for ideas about how to deal with that trilemma from hell. So let's try and offer some.

The use of data would take a central role in a Labour government's industrial strategy, according to shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds A council would also be set up on a statutory footing to oversee the strategy and ensure it isn't abandoned at a later date. The opposition party said if it were to win the next general election, it would make "harnessing data for the public good" a key mission in its industrial strategy. Reynolds announced Labour's industrial strategy at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool. "It's a real industrial strategy – with ambition and the means to achieve it," he said. A key part of this, according to Reynolds, is using data.