Google has agreed to an exhaustive agreement with the UK government to provide free technology to the public sector from the NHS to local councils – a campaigner called “dangerous naivety”.
U.S. companies will be asked to “raise” thousands of civil servants in the technology field, including using artificial intelligence, as part of a protocol that does not require government payments. In Whitehall, it is believed that as the digitalization of public services accelerates, Google will be “beginnered”.
However, the deal raises concerns about the instability of British public data that Donald Trump’s unpredictable leadership may hold on U.S. servers.
The Department of Science, Innovation Technology (DSIT) said Google Cloud, which provides databases, machine learning and computing power, “will agree to work with the UK government to help public services use advanced technologies to get rid of decades-old “dan and chain” legacy contracts that make basic services vulnerable to cyberattacks.”
Google’s services are considered more agile and more efficient than traditional competitors, but White Hall’s digital world is worrying that governments are trapped in a new dependency.
Other U.S. tech companies, including Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic, are also serving civil servants as they try to leverage technology to increase the efficiency of cash-strapped public services.
Prime Minister Rachel Reeves met with two lieutenants of Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan and head of his global business group Nicola Mendelsohn on Wednesday.
During the 2020 pandemic, Palantir, a tech company founded by Trump donor Peter Thiel, served the UK government for £1 and won a £330 million deal in 2023 to create a single platform for NHS data.
DSIT also said Google DeepMind, the AI unit of the tech company led by Nobel Prize winner DeMis Demis Demis Hassabis, will work with government technologists to support them in deploying and spreading new emerging technologies including emerging technologies across the public sector, including improving scientific discoveries, including increasing public sector efficiency.
But as ministers and government regulators face urgent decisions on how to regulate AI, search, cloud computing and copyright, Martha Dark is co-executive director of Foxglove, a nonprofit organization. kingdom? [the science and technology secretary] and the entire government. ”
Other experts say the agreement could “consolidate market power for companies like Google” and make the UK government rely on the technology of large companies. Kyle announced the deal at a Google event in London on Wednesday, saying: “When possible, UK Technologies – Size – Size – [will] A fair shot to win a public technology contract.
Government sources said Google’s chances were not publicly bid for it because there was no money to change hands. “These arrangements will be in full compliance with all applicable public procurement laws and may comply with future commercial agreements,” DSIT said.
Kyle has held 11 meetings with Google representatives since Labour took office until the end of March.
The government said the agreement does not grant Google permission to train AI models in government data or access data for other purposes. It also said that data can only be stored overseas only when satisfactory legal and security measures are reached.
Google says it provides customers with control over where their content is stored and processed, including partnerships with independent infrastructure providers, or through a “jet” system that provides an additional layer of protection.
Kyle said he wanted to “harness the full potential of a partnership between the government and Google, more collaboratively between their UK AI labs, DeepMind and my own AI developers”.
There are signs that new technologies are improving efficiency in the public sector. According to a government study, 20,000 civil servants conducted a discounted trial of Microsoft’s AI Copilot tool, which saved an average of 26 minutes a day, while 82% said they did not want to return to their previous work practices.
But Imogen Parker, deputy director of the Ada Lovelace Institute, a research institution focused on ensuring technology work, said the deal raised questions about UK digital sovereignty.
“The public needs to understand what Google is getting from this partnership and how taxpayers will pay for the next few years,” she said. “Trading like this may be worth the money today, but tomorrow they have the potential to lock in – limiting our ability to seek alternatives in the future.”
Kyle, who had been accused of being too close to Big Tech, said he admitted to the “crime” of encountering his ex, and he spoke far out of his predecessor after the Guardian coverage.
“I have no apology for meetings with tech companies,” he said, adding that it is important to ensure children are safe on social media, ensure the UK is ready for development at the AI border and provide better deals for taxpayers who spend billions of pounds on technology each year.
