Overview
- Prime Minister Andy Burnham promoted Kanishka Narayan to a Cabinet‑attending Minister for Artificial Intelligence, a change announced on Monday that gives the AI portfolio direct access to top government decisions.
- Burnham simultaneously dissolved the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and folded its functions into a new Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade led by Jonathan Reynolds.
- Narayan will serve jointly in the Cabinet Office and the merged business department and will be expected to lead on national AI policy, regulation and international negotiations over model access.
- The appointment highlights long‑running UK problems that Narayan must address: underinvestment in compute and energy, planning hurdles for data centres and recent cancellations or delays of major projects linked to high electricity costs.
- The UK now joins other G7 countries with senior AI ministers, and Narayan’s elevation puts pressure on Burnham’s government to clarify whether Britain will rely on US‑built models, build domestic alternatives or seek a middle path.