Role of Big Tech in Society
Steve Yemm Excerpts(1 month ago)
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Steve Yemm (Mansfield) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Jeremy.
We live in an age in which a handful of technology companies shape how we communicate, shop, work and receive news, and increasingly how the Government deliver public services. There is no question but that technology has brought enormous benefits to us. It has enabled new businesses, accelerated scientific discovery and created opportunities that previous generations could not imagine, but Parliament has a responsibility to ask a fundamental question: who is shaping whom? Is technology serving society or is society being reshaped to serve the interests of technology companies?
Today, a small number of global technology corporations possess unprecedented economic power to influence markets. Their algorithms shape public debate and their infrastructure underpins our essential services. That concentration of power raises important questions about sovereignty. The Government are elected by the British people and this Parliament makes laws, yet too often we find ourselves adapting public policy to the priorities of global firms, rather than expecting those firms to adapt to the rules of our society.
The rise of artificial intelligence makes those questions even more urgent. AI has extraordinary potential in healthcare, education, public administration and so forth, but it should raise concerns about issues such as transparency and accountability, which affect employment and the concentration of power. That means that there is a need for stronger competition policy when markets become overly concentrated. It means that public data is used in the public interest. It means protecting our citizens from harmful online environments. It also means supporting British innovation so that the next generation of technological advance creates prosperity across our country, rather than a dependence on overseas monopolies.
Britain should choose democracy, accountability and innovation in the service of society. That is the task before us. I thank the right hon. Member for The Wrekin (Mark Pritchard) for securing this debate. It is a debate that this House must not shirk.
Technology Sovereignty
Steve Yemm Excerpts(4 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Westminster Hall is an alternative Chamber for MPs to hold debates, named after the adjoining Westminster Hall.
Each debate is chaired by an MP from the Panel of Chairs, rather than the Speaker or Deputy Speaker. A Government Minister will give the final speech, and no votes may be called on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Steve Yemm (Mansfield) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz. I want to speak about technological sovereignty from an east midlands perspective. Too often, Westminster debates are focused on venture capital or high-level digital strategy and so forth while the real foundations of our tech capability lie in specific industrial regions.
The east midlands already has the capabilities to anchor British technological sovereignty. Derbyshire, and particularly Derby, is one of Europe’s most important aerospace hubs. Nottingham is home to two world-class universities, driving innovation in materials science, data science and advanced manufacturing. For Nottinghamshire and my constituency, this is about linking university research directly to local production; strategic public investment in sectors such as advanced manufacturing, with a focus on export focused technologies in particular; encouraging pension funds and public investment programmes to support domestic capital, rather than sending wealth abroad; and restoring political and economic confidence in post-industrial communities in the midlands like my constituency.
Technological sovereignty is not just a slogan; it is a matter of real practical capacity and of the technologies that will shape the future being designed and built in this country rather than elsewhere. The east midlands already contains many of the pieces needed to secure that sovereignty. The task is to recognise them, back them and build a new national political economy that puts production, skills and regional industrial strength at the centre of Britain’s future.
Valerie Vaz (in the Chair)
We have two more speakers, and as I said, I will start calling the Front-Bench spokespeople at 5.08 pm. Your kind colleagues have given you a little extra time, Emily Darlington.