UK Minister Says He Is Not Relaxed About AI Either
Jonathan Reynolds tells the BBC people should stay clear-eyed rather than alarmed. Workers at the TUC this week want to know what that actually means for their jobs.
Key points
- Jonathan Reynolds, the UK Business Secretary, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that people should not become "hyperbolic" about AI risks, while acknowledging the technology is "extremely powerful".
- Reynolds said he is not complacent about AI dangers but argued that building on British expertise is the most effective response.
- The comments came ahead of a speech by Transport Secretary Louise Haigh to the Trades Union Congress, a gathering of the UK's main workers' unions, addressing AI and jobs directly.
- TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak was due to make a statement at around 10.30am on how political party funding laws linked to union money should be reformed.
- Reynolds acknowledged that frontier AI models, the most advanced systems driving the technology forward, are developed primarily in the United States and China, limiting UK use.
Jonathan Reynolds, the UK's Business Secretary, sat down with the BBC on Tuesday and tried to thread a needle most politicians struggle with: take AI seriously without frightening everyone.
His message was this. Yes, AI, short for artificial intelligence, the technology that powers tools like ChatGPT and shapes decisions in hiring and healthcare, is powerful enough to worry about. No, doomsday thinking does not help anyone.
"I wouldn't say I wasn't worried," Reynolds told the Today programme. But he drew a clear line at getting "hyperbolic".
So what is the government actually planning to do?
Not much that is concrete, at least not yet. Reynolds pointed to British innovation and expertise as the answer but stopped short of specific policy. His clearest point was a practical one: frontier AI models are built in the US and China. Britain does not control that pipeline.
When pressed on harder interventions, Reynolds said he was "not really sure what the proposition is." That is either refreshing honesty or a gap in the plan, depending on your view.
Louise Haigh's position is at least clearer on the intent. Our 15 September story on her TUC address found that she plans to treat safety warnings from researchers as genuine obligations rather than background noise, even while chasing AI's economic benefits. Whether that translates into worker protections is the open question.
What does this mean for workers?
For anyone at a TUC conference, AI is not an abstract risk. It is a question about their job next year. The TUC, representing millions of union members across the UK, had AI on its agenda Tuesday for exactly that reason.
Reynolds did not offer specific protections for workers. His framing put national competitiveness alongside safety, arguing the two work together rather than pulling apart.
That framing is worth watching. Governments that lead with competitiveness tend to move slowly on worker protections, while those that lead with safety often frustrate the businesses doing the building. Getting both right at once is the actual challenge, and Tuesday's speech showed the UK is still working out its answer.
For a nurse, a shop owner or anyone else wondering how AI affects their work, the government's current position is that British expertise will keep things safe, without yet explaining what guardrails that means in practice. Haigh's speech to the unions will tell you more about where workers stand than anything Reynolds said this morning.
