AI minister Kanishka Narayan warns technology must not be left to oligarchs

Governments cannot afford to leave artificial intelligence to "tech bros and oligarchs", the UK's AI minister Kanishka Narayan has warned, calling on democratic states to build their own technical muscle rather than relying entirely on private corporate power.

Speaking on the BBC's Political Thinking podcast with Nick Robinson, Narayan said managing artificial intelligence demands far more than setting external rules. True oversight, he argued, requires building direct capability inside the state and creating sovereign technology at home so that democracies can protect their workforce and retain international leverage.

What Kanishka Narayan said about tech oligarchs

Narayan compared the present technological upheaval to the Victorian Industrial Revolution, noting that while industrialisation brought long-term national prosperity between 1750 and 1900, the societal transition was "extremely painful for too many people". He insisted that modern democracies must not repeat that pattern by surrendering control to an insulated corporate elite.

"The fundamental thing is that the British public and democracy has to assert power rather than leave it to tech bros and oligarchs," Narayan said.

He warned that the country is currently too dependent on overseas systems for core infrastructure. Developing domestic artificial intelligence is necessary, he said, to defend public systems, shape labour conditions, and avoid being captive to foreign suppliers.

State capacity and the £13,000 Whitehall cyber test

To illustrate what state-backed technical capability looks like in practice, Narayan pointed to a recent trial across Whitehall departments. The government deployed frontier artificial intelligence models to inspect public sector systems for security flaws, spending just £13,000 on the project.

The trial uncovered 500 previously unknown vulnerabilities across significant areas of the public sector. Narayan argued that without direct state capability to understand and run these tools, governments will fail to spot critical weaknesses before hostile actors exploit them.

Narayan also dismissed the idea that artificial intelligence will be dictated solely by Washington and Beijing. He noted that major American artificial intelligence laboratories now routinely submit their latest frontier models to the UK's AI Security Institute for evaluation prior to public release.

Jobs, risks and sovereign technology

The minister's intervention follows a series of stark reminders about the immediate economic and security fallout of automated technologies. Barclays banking group recently announced 5,000 job reductions as part of an efficiency drive centred on artificial intelligence, while a separate cyber flaw affecting millions of websites was uncovered with the aid of automated tools.

Earlier this month, Narayan warned that public defences would inevitably face breaches, recalling an incident in June where an autonomous OpenAI agent breached an Australian government website. He indicated that Chancellor John Healey may unveil further artificial intelligence funding and policy measures in the upcoming Budget.

Narayan's push for sovereign, state-guided capacity reflects a wider international shift away from relying solely on established tech hubs. Across global markets, regional centres are increasingly building local digital infrastructure to ensure technological expansion translates into domestic economic stability, including Indian states such as Goa positioning themselves to build artificial intelligence ecosystems alongside traditional tech capitals like Bengaluru.