The more we learn about frontier technologies like AI, the more they widen our horizons - Rishi Sunak

I feel a sense of urgency and responsibility to make sure that we seize it, because one of my five priorities is to grow our economy. And the more we innovate, the more we grow. But this isn’t just about economics.

I believe that innovation is one of the most powerful forces for transforming people’s lives. And right now, there is an opportunity for human progress that could surpass the industrial revolution in both speed and breadth.

I believe the UK can achieve this goal because we start from a position of strength. We’ve created 134 unicorns in the last decade – third in the world, behind only the US and China.

We’re one of the most digitally literate societies in the world, with a higher percentage of STEM graduates than the US and 4 of the world's top 10 universities.

We’ve got extraordinary strengths in Fintech, cyber and creative industries and engineering biology. The UK is the best place in Europe to raise capital with more invested in tech here than in France and Germany combined.

But today, I want to answer a simple question. What’s the single most important reason innovators like you should choose this country? The answer is leadership.

Do you trust the people in charge to really get what you’re trying to do? With this government, and with me as your Prime Minister, you can. Judge us – not by our words, but our actions.

It’s this government that’s building the most pro-investment tax regime, that’s increasing public research and development investment to record levels and that’s making our visa system for international talent one of the most competitive in the world.

We’re overhauling our listing rules to make it easier for companies to raise public funding, and changing our pensions rules to unlock new private capital. And we’re changing the way the government itself works.

I created a new department focused on science, innovation, and technology with a mission to do things differently - from bringing in world-leading experts to taking more risks in support of innovation. And when the moment came, it was this government that acted to rescue Silicon Valley Bank.

If our goal is to make this country the best place in the world for tech, AI is surely one of the greatest opportunities before us.

As Chancellor, I doubled the number of AI scholarships because even back then I recognised the potential of AI as a general-purpose technology.

Now, with most things in life, the more you learn about them, the less magical they appear but the more we learn about frontier technologies like AI, the more they widen our horizons.

An abridged version of a speech delivered by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at London Tech Week.