Technology Sovereignty Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Science, Innovation & Technology
Martin Wrigley
Main Page: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)Department Debates - View all Martin Wrigley's debates with the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology
(1 day, 9 hours ago)
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Dame Chi Onwurah
I certainly agree that we need to be able to defend ourselves against AI attacks.
Martin Wrigley (Newton Abbot) (LD)
I thank the hon. Lady and Chair of my Select Committee for giving way. Does she agree that a definition of sovereign tech is something that a foreign power could not switch off, so that the systems on which we rely could not be pulled out from under our feet, much as the Microsoft ones were for the International Criminal Court?
Dame Chi Onwurah
My fellow member of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee makes a very important point about the definition of sovereignty. I do not want to get too bogged down in the actual definition, but I agree that control matters, and I will say a little more about that.
I will raise the definition of digital sovereignty cited in the House of Commons Library briefing, which accompanies this debate, which is
“the agency and capacity of any organisation to make intelligent, informed choices to shape its digital future by design.”
On that basis, choosing between Amazon Web Services and Microsoft for our data centre is technology sovereignty. I also think that if British sovereignty depends on our leaders’ ability to make intelligent choices, they spent a lot of our history not having sovereignty.
The Library definition came from a global consultancy called Public Digital. Emily Middleton, the interim director for digital transformation in DSIT, was previously a partner at Public Digital. It rules out digital independence and says that our goal should be intelligent dependence. Can the Minister say whether he is aiming for intelligent dependence?
The definition I like best, however, is that sovereignty is whatever a sovereign power says it is—that is what sovereignty means. The UK has extraordinary technological human capital resources, particularly in AI, where we are probably third in the world, but also in clean energy, quantum synthetic biology and much more. Our human capital means that we are not just any mid-sized country; we can aim higher than intelligent dependence. Elon Musk chose to turn off Ukraine’s Starlink capacity at a critical time in Ukraine’s defence of its sovereignty against Putin’s illegal aggression. None of us wants the UK to be in such a position of dependence.