Liz Kendall has insisted Labour will make artificial intelligence \u201cwork for workers\u201d, and not abandon people whose jobs are swept away by its rapid advance.<\/p>\n
With public fears mounting about the impact of AI on employment, particularly for young people, the technology secretary claimed that the government could shape the way it is adopted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to make sure AI enhances work: that we help people through the jobs transition, and we\u2019re not like the Tories, who just leave people to cope on their own,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The former leadership contender is rumoured to be vulnerable to being ditched from the cabinet if Andy Burnham wins the Makerfield byelection, ousts Keir Starmer and shifts Labour<\/a> to the left.<\/p>\n But before London Tech Week<\/a>, which will see homegrown firms, US tech companies and policymakers gather in the capital from 8 June, she was keen to set out a distinctly Labour approach to the challenge of AI adoption.<\/p>\n Speaking in her office on Whitehall, Kendall said: \u201cFor everything that is going on in the world and within my party, every single day this government is making a difference.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s up to us, collectively, to choose, to act, to make this in a way that works for Britain; and as a Labour government, to make sure that it works for workers and people living in the most disadvantaged areas, not just a powerful, unaccountable few.\u201d<\/p>\n Kendall said she had adjusted the government\u2019s \u00a3187m TechFirst AI training<\/a> scheme, announced last year, so that 40% of the 1 million children it aims to reach will be in disadvantaged schools.<\/p>\n And she highlighted the launch of two schemes \u2013 in the north-east and north-west of England \u2013 to deliver summer skills camps for young people not in education, employment or training (Neets), or at risk of it.<\/p>\n These schemes will be delivered in collaboration with businesses and aimed at opening up the opportunity of an apprenticeship. They are very small \u2013 60 places in the north-west initially and 20 in the north-east \u2013 but with the expectation of being scaled up.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will have a national programme to prevent young people who are at risk of becoming Neet, to make sure that they actually get a free summer skills programme that we hope will lead for many to a place on an apprenticeship course,\u201d Kendall said.<\/p>\n The north-east scheme, which forms part of government plans for an AI growth zone in the region, is being funded by Labour\u2019s Youth Guarantee<\/a>, which promises support for young people who have been out of work for 18 months or more.<\/p>\n Kendall said: \u201cWe have got to make sure that everybody has got a chance to seize the opportunities from AI, and that means making sure the people and places that most need a decent shot at life, get the chances and choices they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n Liz Kendall highlighted schemes to tackle joblessness among young people. Photograph: Graeme Robertson\/The Guardian<\/p>\n The former Labour minister Alan Milburn published his interim report last week<\/a> about the mounting social challenge of young Neets, whose numbers have passed a million for the first time in a decade.<\/p>\n