A cabinet minister in the UK is being accused of being too close to big tech firms and using his influence to push their agenda despite concerns around online safety.
Allegations of Peter Kyle surfaced after an analysis of available data revealed an increase in meetings with companies such as Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Google ever since the Labour Party came into power.
Kyle accused of abusing his influence for big techs
An analysis by the Guardian showed that Kyle held meetings with people close to or representing the tech sector 28 times within a six-month period, which was an average of more than one meeting every week. According to the Guardian, this was almost 70% more often than his predecessor as science and technology secretary, Michelle Donelan.
Available data shows that Google, Amazon, and Microsoft attended five meetings while Meta attended four.
This has also ignited fresh criticism from those believing the minister used his influence to champion the agendas of the big techs despite widespread concerns about online safety as well as protections for the creative industries.
A trade body representing AI in the UK, known as UKAI, revealed that smaller players were being pushed out as a consequence of the government’s focus on big tech.
“Our concern is that there is a huge imbalance between a handful of global players who are able to influence directly what No 10 is thinking about on policy, and the thousands of other businesses that make up the AI industry across the UK.”
Tim Flagg, the UKAI chief executive.
“Our voice is not being heard but the economic growth that the government seeks will come from these companies,” added Flagg.
The government has identified AI as an enabler for growth, with the Prime Minister Keir Starmer saying the sector could “turbocharge growth.” Additionally, the UK prime minister has now pursued a tech-focused trade deal with the US, after agreeing on a range of tariff reductions.
Is Peter Kyle pushing controversial policies for his tech friends?
The minister is also accused of piloting controversial policies that enable AI-focused companies to evade copyright protections and use creative material to train their AI tools. According to an earlier report by the Guardian, some ministers had drawn up concessions to those plans after a backlash from some UK artists like Elton John and Paul McCartney.
Some in Labour are of the view that Kyle is now too close to an industry that he is supposed to monitor, that he will be moved in the next shuffle, possibly to replace Bridget Phillipson as education secretary.
“Peter Kyle has rightly got a reputation for being too close to big tech – unable to defy his friends at Meta and X when it comes to standing up for our kids’ online safety or the rights of British creatives,” said Victoria Collins, the Liberal Democrats’ science and technology spokesperson.
“Kyle rubbing shoulders with so many big US tech bros, instead of our great UK startups trying to get their foot in the door, shows he’s missing a trick.”
Collins.
However, Conservative chair of the Culture, Media, and Sport Select Committee Caroline Dinenage believes Kyle’s actions are appropriate as they show his keen interest in the growth of the sector.
“But he needs to ensure he’s hearing balanced voices from across the high-performance business sectors the UK economy depends upon, to avoid irrevocable unintended consequences of advancing at the expense of others,” said Dinenage.
According to documents obtained under freedom of information rules by the website EU.tech, Kyle met AI companies several times this year alone. Of these meetings, three were with Anthropic, and a two-day flurry of meetings in February with executives from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, ElevenLabs, the chip designer Arm, and Synthesia.
Many of the meetings were also attended by the prime minister’s adviser on AI, Matt Clifford, who has also been accused of carrying out his role while also holding shares in dozens of AI companies.
