Alys Key

King's Cross has undoubtedly become the new centre of gravity for UK tech. But it didn't happen overnight. Google's new HQ is just the latest chapter in 20+ years of regeneration. That's why as the AI boom arrived, the area was ready. Had a walkabout for this week's UK 2.0 📨

@lcthomas1212 We were! Just for the day, while we spent a couple of nights in Columbus. Lancaster seemed like a nice place.

@alys_key Are you in Lancaster? That’s very close to where I grew up!

New (old) flex just dropped: apparently in the 19th century, the more important you were, the smaller the font on your calling card was. Hence, the microscopic writing on the card of this local bigwig in Lancaster, Ohio.

There's a unique sadness to coming up with an article idea that would be great for a publication that doesn't exist any more.

📩 uk20.substack.com/p/economic-opp…

Spoke to James Lo at London-based AI startup Ethos about latent potential, why Europe needs valuable companies, and why it's sometimes difficult to explain what the company actually does.

This is a just and correct use of taxpayer funds.

Today we launch @ukdynamism, a new philanthropic fund to back the believers and builders in UK dynamism I am delighted to be leading the fund, which is anchor funded by @xtxmarkets and is being incubated by @RenPhilanthropy ukdynamism.fund

King's Cross has undoubtedly become the new centre of gravity for UK tech. But it didn't happen overnight. Google's new HQ is just the latest chapter in 20+ years of regeneration. That's why as the AI boom arrived, the area was ready. Had a walkabout for this week's UK 2.0 📨

@btharris93 This was in DC!

@alys_key What's Seattle like?

Obsessed with this Starbucks branch having business cards for the company's media relations contact. Is this normal? Or does it indicate there's a newsroom nearby?

@ajrgd Nope this was in DC!

@alys_key are you in seattle lol

Emergency @Pathfounders Podcast: How will Andy Burnham change the UK's AI strategy? We’re looking at what could become a major reset coming for Britain’s AI strategy. According to the Financial Times, @andyburnham, who is tipped to be the next UK Prime Minster, is exploring a shift away from the current policy towards one built around UK AI sovereignty, regional growth and re-skilling, as opposed to the more AI-forward approach we’d become used to under Sir Keir Starmer, who had wooed US tech giants like @OpenAI and @AnthropicAI, while promoting of home-grown AI companies. Indeed, it even launched a £500 @UKSovereignAI fund. But are we about to see the rise of a far more tech-sceptical UK administration? Featuring Editor, Writer and Journalist, @alys_key, and @MeryemArik9, Co-founder and CEO at Doubleword.

Anyway tomorrow's newsletter is about King's Cross/the Knowledge Quarter/the new Square Mile. Sign up here: uk20.substack.com

Brb trying not to think about how much this would have been worth today theguardian.com/politics/2015/…

✨ Announcing fast grants for British progress ✨ Have an idea for how to drive growth and progress in Britain? We’re making small grants for research, policy and other projects, with funding decisions in just two weeks. No academic affiliation required. Need some prompting to start cooking? We’ve got a list of questions we’d love people to tackle - on topics like devolution, AI diffusion, financial regulation and more… Apply here: britishprogress.org/news/fast-gran… More on why we’re doing this: open.substack.com/pub/britishpro…

The children of today and tomorrow do not even know what they have lost.