Technology is the only way out of this mess, the former Labour Prime Minister told the new Labour Prime Minister in London today (9 June), four days after Britain's new government won a landslide election victory and properly affirmed its economic “legacy” for the first time. The task of fixing a broken nation is too big for “stable governments” and “business as usual policies”, even if it should be “vigorously pursued” as planned, Sir Tony Blair told Sir Keir Starmer. “There is only one game changer – the technological revolution of the 21st century,” he said.
This was the message of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the “Future of Britain” conference hosted by the Tony Blair Global Change Institute (TBI), a UK-based non-profit think tank that tackles grander global challenges. The institute has been described as a kind of “global foundation” set up by former presidents and as “McKinsey for world leaders.” Blair said technology, and AI in particular, is the answer to “progressivism's eternal dilemma: that reasonable people are not radical and cannot appear radical.”
He added: “[It is] Blair is the last Labour leader to overturn a decade of Conservative rule (1997-19, 2024-15) and the last to win by such a large margin (1997-179 seats, 2024-174 seats). He has also written an open letter to the new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer. Times It gives the same advice: that the “triple whammy of high taxes, heavy debt and bad outcomes” and an ageing, sicker population will not be remedied by more honest and smart policymaking alone.
Starmer's new government must seize the only chance it has to be more radical: harnessing digital transformation technologies to drive economic growth, he said. The situation is tough, but the opportunities are big, unique and unpredictable, he said. “At first glance, this may seem like the most restrictive time in our lifetimes to form a new government, given the fiscal situation. But when you think about the opportunities that technology now offers, it may actually be the most exciting and full of potential.”
He added: “I believe there has never been a better time to govern. It is a better time to make change. There are better foundations for optimism and surer reasons for hope. But only if we understand how the world is changing and how to use those changes to transform our country…This is a time of change. The impossible becomes possible, and progress that would have taken decades is realized in a matter of years or months. The increased efficiencies we can achieve, the dramatic resulting gains we can secure, can be truly revolutionary.”
The event, held in London, was attended by the UK's new Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, a darling of the UK's AI world, and other notable figures, but Prime Minister Blair said that under a “scenario of rapid AI adoption,” reforms using AI would be It would generate enough tax revenue for the UK to offset all the extra fiscal pressures the UK faces up to 2040. The TBI calculates that public sector AI could create “extra fiscal space” of £12 billion per year by the end of this Parliament, rising to up to £40 billion per year within a decade and £100 billion per year by 2040.
These figures appear to consist of an expected savings of £10 billion by the end of this Parliamentary term (around 4 years) and £35 billion by the end of the next Parliamentary cycle (around 8 years) from introducing AI to save a fifth of public sector “working hours”, plus a further £600 million and £1.2 billion in Treasury savings over the same period from a “limited version of a preventive health programme focusing solely on cardiovascular disease”, and a further net savings of £4 billion and £10 billion from the introduction of a digital ID scheme to reduce bureaucracy and improve access to public services.
TBI calculates that investments in “AI-powered education” could boost educational attainment and GDP by 6% in the long run. The institute released a series of measures covering these various public sector AI initiatives. In the private sector, the institute said, “rapid adoption of AI” could “further increase tax revenues, potentially doubling these benefits.” In its policy document released today, “AI-Powered Education,” it states: The economic case for rethinking the state (Available here) The TBI wrote: “The scale of the economic challenges facing the UK is enormous and new engines of growth are needed to overcome them.”
It continues: “The new Government needs to harness the only structural tailwind heading in a positive direction: technological advances. There is reason for optimism here: we are at the dawn of a new AI era that is already delivering significant financial benefits and productivity gains among companies at the forefront of adoption. According to the International Monetary Fund, these benefits, if spread across the economy, could boost UK growth by up to 1.5 percentage points per year over the next decade.”
“It's very uncertain when these benefits will come. [show] UK growth statistics: from 2027 onwards from 2025 onwards from 2026 onwards from 2027 onwards from 2028 onwards from 2029 onwards from 2030 onwards from 2040 onwards from 2050 onwards from 2060 onwards from 2070 onwards from 2080 onwards from 2090 onwards from 2010 onwards from 2011 onwards from 2012 onwards from 2013 onwards from 2014 onwards from 2015 onwards from 2016 onwards from 2017 onwards from 2018 onwards from 2019 … [But] “The economic benefits of AI will not accrue automatically. Governments need to support the proliferation of AI-era technologies across the economy by adopting a pro-innovation and pro-technology stance.”
