Season 3: Episode 10 - Is the CTO a Business Role? And is AI Rewriting the Rules of Tech Leadership?

This is about the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology being scrapped.

um by the the latest version of our government and um and i was a little bit i wasn't exactly flipping but like well maybe it needs to be spread out amongst the thing anyway it turns out that i'm wrong and it's a complete disaster right so that's the general opinion across those who are in the know including the lovely dr laura gilbert cb e who has been at the center of government and scurrying around the outside of it for some time and is a friend of London Tech leaders.

We've had her at one of our last conferences and on a panel.

And she knows what she's talking about.

So when I saw her sort of, you know, give this one a little bit of a... let's not say rant, but a considered opinion, shall we say, about why it's not a good thing, just made me stop and think a little bit.

And then I did a bit more research.

And actually, I think that it's not been well thought through.

So maybe we'll see some better thinking through.

But what everybody was in positive opinion about was that the new AI minister, Kanishka Narayan, is a top bloke.

is basically how I can define it.

That seems to be the general opinion.

And everybody seems to be saying, look, if you're going to have somebody sitting in the cabinet office talking about AI, this is your guy.

He knows his onions.

That's basically the vibe that I'm getting from everybody.

But for those of you who haven't followed this, Kanishka was born in India, raised in Cardiff.

He's worked in government and business before entering Parliament in 2024 as the MP for the Vale of Glamorgan.

so he's done he's done a lot of things he knows his way around it he wrote uh on the early hours of tuesday morning ai is likely the most significant technology in human history its impact will dwarf other things the best case for its compelling beyond our dreams a re-industrialized britain stronger national security public services transformed for the better So, you know, he's pretty passionate about AI.

He thinks it's the place to be.

So, you know, and everybody seems to think like he's the right place to, he's the right guy to be doing this.

So whether we'll see the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology coming back in some form, whether he'll influence that, I couldn't say.

But yeah, the general opinion is that's a bad thing, but he and his position on AI is a good thing.

Have you seen this one this week?

I have been watching a little bit, yeah.

And I think it's always wonderful to see someone coming into power, particularly with something so modern and cutting edge and with such broad impact across the country who hasn't, and I don't know a lot about his background, but who hasn't been raised in the Surrey Hills and went to Eton and went to Oxford and has been living in London and working at a big city firm ever since.

So it's wonderful to hear that there's a little bit of diverse geographical representation being included, obviously that goes nicely with the potential second Downing Street, a little bit further up the country.