@LRKellaway @UKSovereignAI I think there’s a good example of this mentioned in the substack
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James Wise
652 posts
James Wise
@Jameswise
Partner @Balderton. Investing in AI, health and energy. Chair of UK Sovereign AI. Author of Start-Up Century. Mostly Generative.
United Kingdom Katılım Mart 2010
4.1K Takip Edilen18.1K Takipçiler
Keen for pushing hard but is this just about competing with US on ChatGPT and co or are we prioritising problem areas in public cost centres I.e. the NHS. Self serving ai directed at efficiency savings, quality and workflow should be prioritised. Reduce cost. Win. Improve access. Win. Export tech. Win.
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Perspectives on what it means to be a sovereign nation when it comes to AI, and how we can wrangle these new technologies to benefit us all, are no longer questions of philosophy and are now policy debates,
The @UKSovereignAI team have started a Substack to share some of their thinking on these critical issues, and welcome guest posts from across the spectrum as well.
And they have started with a clarion call from the Secretary of State on the urgent need to accelerate our efforts on scaling British AI companies and capabilities across the nation.
‘This combination of capabilities going up and costs coming down so quickly is rare in history. When it happens - in steam, in electricity, in silicon - it does not reward the countries that wait.’
Worth a read, and comments are welcome!
Sovereign AI@UKSovereignAI
🚨Sovereign AI Substack. 🚨 We've joined Substack. We’ll use it to share longer-form thinking on British AI, sovereignty, and the opportunities this technology presents for the UK. In the months ahead, we’ll be publishing perspectives from across the ecosystem - from founders, our growing portfolio of British startups, and leaders in industry. We're pleased to kick off with a guest post from our Secretary of State, @leicesterliz MP, reflecting on why the next 24 months will be critical for Britain's AI future, and what it will take to build true AI sovereignty. Subscribe and join the conversation.
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@chalmermagne Because you don’t agree with regulating social media? Or because you don’t agree with the principle that having global winners domestically aides alignment with a country’s values?
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@Jameswise Mixed. I wasn’t hugely keen on the section where she talked about how the government hadn’t been able to go hard enough on online safety and this is something AI sovereignty would help us avoid happening again.
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@AFitzgerald1992 @larisamlbrown It was a shock to me when I was told our ‘British company’ test at SovAI was far stricter than the MoDs! Agree that a company needs far more than just a legal entity.
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@larisamlbrown Does buying British only mean buying from a company who has incorporated a subsidiary in the UK? No in my opinion, which is what these stats show. You need substantial economic activity
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The MoD already spends 85 per cent of its money on buying British. Should it go further? We explore the pros and cons thetimes.com/article/1001bb…
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James Wise retweetledi
want to help shape how the world understands ai in 2026 with the most trusted and widely read @stateofai report?
i’m hiring a research analyst to find the signal and build original analysis this summer
remote + paid - apply by 28 july
stateof(dot)ai/analyst
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This would be VERY welcome in the UK tech ecosystem.
Slow, risk-averse procurement is single biggest issue that founders face in Europe.
The US government has played an extraordinary role in supporting its tech ecosystem by being a large customer.
It would be amazing to see the UK gov doing the same.
From the FT linked below
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Exceptional energy, and high expectations, at the @UKSovereignAI launch in Manchester.
Thanks to everyone for coming!
Sovereign AI@UKSovereignAI
On Tuesday, we held the official Sovereign AI North West launch in Manchester.🐝🇬🇧 It was brilliant to have 100+ local founders, investors, academics, researchers, and ecosystem leaders in the room. If Britain is going to build the next generation of globally significant AI companies, it needs this kind of collaboration across the UK’s entire ecosystem. Our Chair, @Jameswise, set out why this moment matters so much. AI is this generation's defining technology, and the UK starts from a position of real strength: world-class research, some early successes and increasing sovereign capabilities. However, now is the time to turn those strengths into globally significant companies that benefit each corner of the UK. James also spoke about why his home town of Manchester and the North West are such important parts of that story. While the City has an extraordinary history of technological firsts, its real advantage lies in the ambition and entrepreneurial mindset that continues to drive innovation across the region today. Rather than dwell on the past (we've all been to Quarry Bank Mill enough times now! ), Manchester's foundations at the frontier of chemistry, advanced materials and automated manufacturing make it the perfect launch pad for a new generation of future industries. This is why our UK tour has been so important for us. Great founders are building startups in every corner of the country, and each region has its own strengths. If we're serious about backing Britain's AI future, we need to be listening to our regional ecosystems, building long-term partnerships, and meeting founders face-to-face, wherever they are.
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‘What we have seen is that 85% of clinicians are using the tool every single day.’
Amazing work here from the team in East Kent.
BBC Kent@BBCRadioKent
East Kent Hospitals NHS trust is the first in the country to use a potentially life-saving artificial intelligence tool that can help clinicians identify infections at an early stage. More here: bbc.in/3R3FPVn
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James Wise retweetledi
This is not how founders should be spending their time; chasing payment for services delivered.
Ryan Shorthouse@RyanShorthouse
Very sorry to have to have to do this, but I wanted to flag that @WeAreBrightBlue is owed £18,900 from the investment firm C5 Capital, who are now about 2.5 months late in paying two separate invoices for services we have delivered for them. We delivered one of these services in partnership with @thefabians. They wrote to me that these invoices would be paid in their payment run at the end of May. They then wrote that they would pay Bright Blue in their payment run at the end of June. This has not happened. They have provided no explanation for this. These payments are essential for the cash flow of our business and legally due to us. This is C5 Capital: c5capital.com
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If the technological miracle of the 2020s was turning sand into intelligence, the technological miracle of the 2030s will be turning hydrogen into cheap, clean energy.
Great to be backing @proximafusion again at @balderton.
Seb Johnson@SebJohnsonUK
A German startup has just raised €411m to build the world’s FIRST nuclear fusion plant. It comes at a time when Europe’s energy security is being scrutinised more than ever. Germany in particular has been criticised for closing down all of its nuclear power plants, but this could see the country become a global energy powerhouse. Today @proximafusion has raised €411m at a €2.5bn valuation. This makes it one of the best funded fusion companies in the world! The company recently signed an agreement to build Europe’s FIRST Nuclear Fusion plant. If this works Proxima could truly become a trillion dollar company.
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Great news for both @quantumdrones and everyone in NATO & beyond who benefit from their systems. @balderton only invested a year ago but the company, and the market, feels like it’s been through a decade of change in that time.
Bloomberg@business
Quantum Systems has raised $1.2 billion in a funding round, more than doubling the German drone startup’s valuation to about $8 billion post-money, in the latest example of investors’ enthusiasm for defense-related bets. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
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James Wise retweetledi
@magnushambleton Pangram is highly inaccurate. And no one should care if people use models or not to improve their prose, in the same way you shouldn’t care if someone uses spellchecker. Engage with the content, not the medium.
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“But here's what AI actually did at Revolut: it didn't reduce my need for people. It exposed how badly under-resourced my ambition was.”
Revolut@Revolut
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While we’ve always seen a balance in the use of closed frontier models vs building your own stack - it feels like things have really shifted over the last few months. We’ve seen an absolute explosion in open source harnesses and models.
This is a great @USV piece on this new, resilient AI stack. @Balderton has backed multiple companies in this space, from independent harnesses for Government/Defence like Deepset and coding like Pi, through to open source/weight models like Prior Labs and Writer.
Worth a read:
x.com/nickgrossman/s…
Nick Grossman@nickgrossman
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