While patients die in hospital corridors, Starmer ponders whether private companies can profit from NHS data.

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Since last summer, I’ve wondered when Keir Starmer would make an announcement about AI and public services. It is obvious that machine learning and the expansion of AI technology will lead to its growing role within many sectors in the coming years, but that’s not why I was waiting for Starmer’s speech. I was waiting because of a recent publication from the “Tony Blair Institute for Global Change”, a publication which I suspect has influenced Starmer behind the scenes.

Tony Blair and his institute seem to have a lot of influence on the Prime Minister (indeed, Starmer spoke at a conference run by the institute just days after he won the General Election). I wrote about this a few months ago, and back then I explained how Blair’s organisation describes itself, and how others see it:

“The institute formed in 2016, and describes itself like this:

‘We help governments and leaders turn bold ideas into reality. We do it by advising on strategy, policy and delivery, unlocking the power of technology across all three. We do it by sharing our insights, so everyone can benefit. And we do it to help build more open, inclusive and prosperous countries for people everywhere’ “.

Many others describe it differently. The TBI is often described as a “neoliberal think tank”, and it’s becoming enormously powerful. The Guardian wrote last year about the scale of Blair’s new initiative:

“As prime minister, Tony Blair oversaw a few hundred Downing Street staff and one country. Sixteen years later, he is now responsible for more than 800 staff who help advance his policies in nearly 40 countries. Since leaving No 10, the former prime minister has arguably become more powerful thanks to the work of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), which has exploded in size and revenue during the last few years. Its accounts show it made over $81m (£65m) in revenue in 2021, a 78% increase on the previous year.”

I also featured a quote from Politico, which I found quite illuminating…

“Politico flagged up a new report from the TBI just this week, which emphasises the need to digitise health records in the UK and lean into AI to improve public healthcare. The Politico article includes this quote:

‘Blair’s think tank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, is backed by tech billionaire Larry Ellison who has pledged a total of $375 million over the years. Ellison's cloud computing company Oracle is in one of the sectors benefiting from an AI boom and has a commercial interest in digitizing health records … The report received input from an employee in Oracle's health division, and other health tech companies.’ “

…and because of this, because of the close links between Starmer and Blair and because of Labour’s goal to go for economic growth, it seemed to be just a matter of time before we’d hear an announcement about AI, public-private partnerships, and the potential mining of public assets to generate profits…