Andy Burnham, the heavy favourite to become the UK's next PM, has indicated instincts around AI that differ markedly from Keir Starmer's. Whether they signal a new era of AI driven more by the public good, or a dampening effect in places like London's Knowledge Quarter – or both – is an open question. We look into exactly what a Burnham premiership might mean for the UK's AI industry.
New UK AI skills data shows that demand for applied AI roles rose 61% in 2025 but fewer than one in ten firms investing in AI report meaningful returns. The problem is not mainly a shortage of deep technical talent. It is the rarity of people who combine business knowledge, technical fluency, and the ability to drive change inside large organisations built for a pre-AI world.
UK backs two new AI research labs with £60 million — UCL and Oxford will lead labs focused on open-source systems and low-compute learning, backed by EPSRC. Read more
Northumbria study finds policing AI safeguards lagging badly — Researchers mapped 70 live or in-development AI tools across UK policing and found "human in the loop" oversight is often nominal. Read more
UK's £750 million national supercomputer breaks ground in Edinburgh — Construction has started on what EPCC describes as the country's most powerful computer, part of the sovereign compute push. Read more
AI minister has not used ChatGPT for ministerial work — A Freedom of Information request revealed Kanishka Narayan and Liz Kendall have avoided AI chatbots in official business, despite championing public sector adoption. Read more
Cambridge PRISM project brings AI to social housing risk detection — Developed with two local councils, the tool aims to identify at-risk tenancies earlier, with housing professionals kept firmly in the decision loop. Read more
Nature study finds medical AI privacy risks fall unevenly — Imperial College London co-authored research showing minority groups and people with rare conditions face greater exposure to membership-inference attacks on medical models. Read more