The UK government has elevated the role of its AI minister by granting a seat at the cabinet table, while simultaneously dismantling the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).
DSIT was established by the previous Conservative government under Rishi Sunak in 2023. Its duties will now be divided across other government departments. This move eliminates the position of a dedicated technology secretary, a role most recently held by Liz Kendall until she was dismissed by new Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
Kanishka Narayan, who was originally appointed by former Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, said the new prime minister's decision to invite him to attend cabinet as minister for AI demonstrated a "deep commitment to AI's importance."
Narayan was born in India and raised in Cardiff. He worked in both government and business before entering Parliament in 2024 as the MP for the Vale of Glamorgan. Under Starmer's government, he served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State with responsibilities covering AI opportunities, the AI Security Institute, semiconductors, and online safety. He is expected to continue overseeing some of those areas, though now without Kendall's leadership.
"AI is likely the most significant technology in human history. Its impact will dwarf other things," Narayan wrote on X early Tuesday. "The best case for it is compelling beyond our dreams: a reindustrialised Britain, stronger national security, public services transformed for the better."
He acknowledged that AI also presents real risks to the public, adding that "it is right that the British public shares those worries, for jobs, for the pace of change."
Industry concerns over dismantling DSIT
Dom Hallas, head of the tech trade body Startup Coalition, said it was crucial that the government did "not take the foot off the pedal" with tech following the dismantling of DSIT. He noted that the previous department had provided good foundations, and the priority should now be spreading AI tech adoption through government and the wider public.
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Big challenges ahead for the AI minister
Professor Gina Neff, head of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge, said the minister faces multiple policy challenges. One of the most pressing is how society deals with the threat of AI replacing jobs. However, Neff said elevating an AI minister to cabinet at least sent a signal that the Prime Minister was "serious about having someone serious in this key role."
Professor Adam Beaumont, chairman of telecoms and digital infrastructure firm AQL, said the most pressing issue for a new AI minister was ensuring resilience. He warned that another reorganisation of science and tech within government could mean "changing too many things at once."
"We're a small island but the internet is borderless, we need more compute within our shores," Beaumont said, suggesting the UK needed to build more data centres. That has proven extremely controversial. The BBC was told in February that government plans to make the UK a "world leader" in AI could put already stretched supplies of drinking water under strain.
Beaumont argued that to supply data centres, the government needed to focus on delivering abundant and reliable energy for the grid immediately. "Without power there's no compute, without the compute there's no knowledge economy," he said. "All our aspirations on digital growth are reliant on the assumption of readily available energy, but that is not growing in line with the exponential growth of AI."
Political risks for the government
Professor Neff said the electorate could see things differently. "For any Labour government to hitch their future electability to benefits to AI, then the political challenge for a new government is people need to feel the benefits before any job losses," she said. "How do you jump start the British economy to get growth? AI may be that solution, or it might be a longer term investment. People want to see the economy improving and kids getting jobs."