Vinous Ali retweeted
Today, Baroness Campbell addressed the House of Lords with an AI recreation of her voice - a first for the UK Parliament.
Proud we could help Baroness Campbell keep her own voice, whenever she needs it.
Today, Baroness Campbell of Surbiton delivered a speech in the @UKHouseofLords using an AI recreation of her voice, built by ElevenLabs. A first for the UK Parliament.
Baroness Campbell has spinal muscular atrophy, which affects her speech. The Baroness has now created an AI voice that replicates the tone, rhythm, and pitch of her original voice.
Our technology has now been used to restore the voices of more than 11,000 people who have lost their voices through injury or illness, and we’ve committed to help one million people living with voice loss around the world.
This is a HUGE part of the reason I joined @ElevenLabs Our voice is so intrinsic to our identity. Having worked in the system I'm delighted that the @UKHouseofLords is now trailblazing the way for how technology can be used to create more inclusive in and participatory spaces 👏🏽
Today, Baroness Campbell of Surbiton delivered a speech in the @UKHouseofLords using an AI recreation of her voice, built by ElevenLabs. A first for the UK Parliament.
Baroness Campbell has spinal muscular atrophy, which affects her speech. The Baroness has now created an AI voice that replicates the tone, rhythm, and pitch of her original voice.
Our technology has now been used to restore the voices of more than 11,000 people who have lost their voices through injury or illness, and we’ve committed to help one million people living with voice loss around the world.
Can't stop, won't stop 😍
Introducing Eleven v4 and Eleven v4 Turbo, our fastest and most emotive voice models yet.
Ranked #1 by Artificial Analysis.
1
181
One of the last things Dom shared with me before I left was the piece below about Clifford's new gig.
Dom had a lot of thoughts and he was gonna use the powers of a substack to organise them. The result - a thoughtful, unflinchingly honest and 100%-authentic piece. Have a read.
I think I've been asked more about Matt Clifford's move to Anthropic than almost anything else in the past two weeks. And that's in the time that one of their staff resigned saying AI was going to kill us all.
There’s a much longer conversation to be had about the very real questions of tech sovereignty, where the UK sits today and what that means for policy. At @StartupCltn we're building work on all of it.
But that’s not what I thought of first when I had these conversations, so I wanted to write something that talked about the reaction to Matt’s new job and my personal reflections of what I think it means.
domhallas.substack.com/p/mat…
7
884
Folk putting up holiday montages to metro station's Shake It is the most wholesome thing online right now and I won't hear a word against it.
80
Vinous Ali retweeted
Entrepreneurship in the UK needs carrots not sticks and it’s great that the Government has ruled out moving forward with bonkers plans to levy an exit tax on spinouts and founders building with the backing UK research funding. Thanks to @jreynoldsMP and others for listening 👏
‘Exit tax’ on UK entrepreneurs ruled out by business department ft.trib.al/PyMs8pe
Vinous Ali retweeted
Matt ensuring that Anthropic continues their run as the most British-coded major lab 😂
V exciting stuff!
Some personal news: I'm joining @AnthropicAI as Managing Director, International Affairs, leading the company's work with governments outside North America
Vinous Ali retweeted
British founders tell me it's too hard to buy from govt, too hard to scale in Britain.
Today, we are moving fast to fix it 🇬🇧
The Chancellor, @JohnHealey_MP, has announced @UKSovereignAI’s £100m rapid AI R&D procurement.
If you're a founder in Britain, come build -- we will be on your side, and we will move quickly.
We are starting by asking our founders to take on four national challenges: an NHS with more time for patient care; defence that keeps Britain safe; compute that means British AI strength; and ideas that keep our country cyber resilient.
Vinous Ali retweeted
One of the great challenges for British start-ups has been selling to our own Government - until now.
Gov procurement has often discriminated against innovative new British companies. @UKSovereignAI has set out to change that, and after a lot of work, we've just launched our rapid procurement scheme - the first of its kind in the UK.
This is £100M of contracts for British AI companies to deliver services to make our public services cheaper and more efficient.
This scheme is designed around the needs of start-ups: No turnover minimums. Departmental champions from day 1. Upfront payments. Streamlined applications. You keep your IP.
We are launching with four initial schemes, with more to come later this year.
These are:
- Providing AI for a more productive NHS
- Integrating AI across Defence environments
- Making public compute more efficient
- Safe adoption of AI agents.
If you think you might bid for one of these, you can first check your eligibility and learn more about the schemes on the website below
sovereignai.gov.uk/compute-s…
Vinous Ali retweeted
Today @startupcltn we're launching Buying British Innovation, a new report on fixing government procurement in the UK.
Why?
Increasingly in these past couple of years we’ve been hearing from founders about the need to fix public procurement. And with stories like the one today about Atos' new HMRC contract this is clearer than ever.
Of course, part of this is about backing British tech. But this isn’t just self-interest, it’s about what we miss out on by failing to take advantage of the very best tech from our ecosystem.
If we want to ensure that British public services can succeed in an age where our country is in a tricky spot of rising taxes and rising demand for great public services - British tech startups are absolutely part of the answer.
@andyburnham agrees. His new administration has already signalled their strong intent to reform public procurement, with priority placed on ‘Buying British’ to create jobs and drive local and national economic growth.
So we've built a playbook of asks such as:
😤 Properly tracking pre-procurement processes so we can make sure that contracts aren't stitched up before startups get a look in.
👩💻 Better processes around internal tech tools to stop Government replicatign what's already happening in the private sector but worse.
🤝 Instigating proper ‘Startup-Friendly’ terms & requirements as default for all government frameworks to stop great tech being frozen out.
🏆 Speeding up the process of departmental Procurement Innovation Champions announced last year.
And these asks are just the start - we're building Pipeline - our new programme to directly connect founders with the folks in government ready to buy. If you want info get in touch...
Vinous Ali retweeted
We have today appointed my brilliant colleague, Lord Vallance, to chair the PM’s AI Taskforce.
Patrick and I worked closely together before. We will now do so again, with the urgency and importance of the Vaccines Taskforce, applied to the central question of artificial intelligence.
gov.uk/government/news/ai-to…
Vinous Ali retweeted
Great to be able to talk to the new PM @andyburnham just now in his first week. The big message - British tech startups and scaleups are smashing it. Let’s double down and make sure we can help grow the country too! 🇬🇧🚀
Vinous Ali retweeted
A micro point, setting aside bigger issues around scrapping DSIT, I find the separation of GDS from the AI taskforce & AI adoption a bit strange. Surely GDS & related services are going to become more AI driven - huge potential to improve service to citizens/business & improve efficiency. Furthermore, GDS is truly cross cutting as an HMG function so would have been one of the things that mostade sense to house centrally.
Vinous Ali retweeted
Good to be able to jump on with @jreynoldsMP to talk about what comes next as he comes back to the new DBIST. Hopefully the first of many constructive conversations to come.
Vinous Ali retweeted
The Prime Minister, @andyburnham, today asked me to attend Cabinet as Minister for AI, a sign of his deep commitment to AI's importance.
AI is likely the most significant technology in human history. Its impact will dwarf other things.
The best case for it is compelling beyond our dreams: a reindustrialised Britain, stronger national security, public services transformed for the better.
The risks, too, are real: it is right that the British public shares those worries, for jobs, for the pace of change.
The central fact is that it is happening. Nations have a narrow window to decide whether they shape AI or get shaped by it. Britain is in that window right now.
While that window is still open, I will act with pace, I will act with ambition, and I will focus relentlessly on securing British influence in shaping AI.
I will also bring to this job the place I represent - a constituency in Wales, a nation with industry and ambition at its heart, a proud history of punching above its weight on the global stage. A nation which welcomed a 12-year old and his family, gave us the best chance at opportunity, put me in Parliament as Wales' first ethnic minority MP, and now affords me the chance to make a mark in Cabinet. Diolch o galon to everyone in the Vale of Glamorgan.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Vinous Ali retweeted
🔥Feel the Burn-ham
Our @StartupCltn breakdown on another mad day in British politics as Andy takes charge.... DSIT gone, @KanishkaNarayan attending cabinet and everything else you need...
Check it out here... startupcoalition.substack.co…
