Artificial Intelligence: National Security Implications

Viscount Camrose Excerpts

Tuesday 16th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Camrose (Con)]

My Lords, I very much welcome the proposal of the noble Lord, Lord Tarassenko, for sovereign AI capability here. But I would welcome a great deal more clarity from the Government on what exactly they mean by sovereign AI. Does it mean a complete sovereign stack of hardware, software and data? Does it mean AI capability being sovereign, as the Tony Blair Institute suggested, or some variation of that? Until there is a clear definition, it will be very difficult to understand the way forward.

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

Sovereignty is not just about controlling AI models. It is about building leverage over key parts of the value chain and bringing to the table technologies that no one else can live without. It is about looking at where the UK has competitive strengths and where we can support our most promising sectors and start-ups, whether through financial investment, support for R&D or support with visas and so on. We have identified five priority areas: compute efficiency and sovereign architecture; next generation AI labs and model development; AI for health and life sciences; AI for scientific discovery; and AI trust, integrity and assurance. Those are the areas in which we think the UK has a competitive advantage.