An anti-Big Tech lobby starts up

Good morning and Happy World Book Day. Pro parent tip, a tiger onesie works for any occasion 🐯. 

Happening Today 🗓️

In Parliament: It's Cabinet Office questions this morning with MPs asking about cybersecurity and digital IDs, a consultation on which is expected next week.

Get booking: TechUK is finalising the lineup for its policy conference on March 16. Senior figures from all major parties are speaking: Liz Kendall (Labour), Zia Yusuf (Reform), Ben Spencer (Conservatives), Victoria Collins (Lib Dems) and Kate Forbes (SNP).

News In Brief 🩳

So you can just do it: Google announced a host of policy changes to its app store overnight to settle long-running competition concerns. They include slashing developer fees, allowing third-party app stores on Android devices, and enabling developers to use their own billing systems. The changes, long pushed for by companies like Epic Games, will start in the UK in September. They go much further than commitments Google made to the UK competition watchdog just last month.

Build in the open: The UK should create a “National Foundation” for open source technology, UKRI-funded research out today recommends. Produced by OpenUK, an industry body for open technology, it wants public investment to build open source infrastructure, arguing it is the best option for the UK and other “middle nations” to become less dependent on US tech (more on that theme below).

What you looking at? Data watchdog the ICO is asking Meta for more info about how it processes data gathered from its smart glasses after Swedish media reported contractors were able to view sensitive content. The BBC has more.

A headline I wasn't expecting: AI-trained robot mice inspect the Hadron Collider.

An anti-Big Tech lobby starts up

Plenty of people talk about building UK tech “sovereignty” - few start a campaign to do it. But two lawyers have done just that, launching an AI manifesto for the UK this week.

Do we have a choice? Ben Maling, a patent attorney and partner at EIP, and William Bowes, General Counsel at YouGov, are behind the AI manifesto (called AIM) and want to promote UK tech interests over US Big Tech ones. Until now, those interests have largely aligned - the UK has little option other than to use the US tech stack.

Your time is now: But Maling argues that long-term, Britain needs to get out of a “follower mindset” and show confidence in its own strengths. The manifesto centres on three pillars - sovereignty, leadership and sustainability. He sees an opening now because he believes UK public interest is no longer best-served by US tech companies.

“For all of the value it provides, the US tech stack has created dependencies across our economy that have left it vulnerable to extraction and coercion from misaligned actors, as we are now seeing with the Trump government. Right now, the priority has to be to avoid deepening and extending those dependencies via AI," Maling said.

To do that: Maling wants government to support the UK tech sector by buying from British firms, giving them access to datasets and tax incentives. He believes the UK can build a more independent AI stack with international partners and open source will be a "huge component" (see above). But the strategy Maling recommends would be an about-face by government which relies on large tech contracts, overwhelmingly with huge corporations (dive deep on UK tech procurement figures here).

Yeh, we're the little guy: “We don’t have the resources of Big Tech, but we do have connections, and the advantages of neutrality and being able to credibly say that we have the UK’s best interests at heart," Maling said.

Hardest problems first: The policy area they’re starting with is AI and copyright. The two lawyers are developing a “landing zone” between tech and creative sector interests, which have been at odds for years. Maling is proposing a narrow extension of the existing research exemption for text and data mining, something the government is also looking at. But any expansion to research exemptions will likely be fiercely opposed by creative industries. “Proposing compromises is uncomfortable for lobbyists in all sectors, but it is something we can do without fear,” he said. 

The bigger debate: Beyond tech policy circles, Maling believes AI's impact on culture, democracy, and Britain's place in the world has been ignored. "There is a risk of democratic deficit if decisions continue to be made on the advice of a small group of well-connected industry benefactors," he said.

Spotted Elsewhere 👀

A weekly round up of interesting stuff I've read.

Best of times: The Economist cheers the European tech scene, helped, it says, by Donald Trump's policies.

Worst of times: The Middle East strikes have shattered illusions of the Gulf as a safe haven for the AI industry, the Rest of the World argues.

Up in Ayr: Can a huge data centre revitalise a left-behind part of Scotland? This BBC article is close to my heart as my wife's family live in the area, but it sums up community concerns playing out across the country.  

Over on Substack: Two of my favourite Substacks are Alys Key's UK 2.0 and State of the Future by Lawrence Lundy-Bryan. Alys dives into university spinouts in her latest piece, while VC Lundy-Bryan makes sense of the headlines around AI's impact on work.

Thanks for reading, back tomorrow.

Tom