Kanishka Narayan, the UK's new AI minister, will sit at the cabinet table — but the department he was meant to lead no longer exists. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), created by the Conservative Sunak government in 2023, has been scrapped by Prime Minister Andy Burnham, its responsibilities carved up among other government departments.
Narayan, who was appointed by Sir Keir Starmer, said the prime minister inviting him to attend cabinet as minister for AI was a "sign of his deep commitment to AI's importance." The move leaves no dedicated technology secretary — a position held by Liz Kendall until Burnham sacked her.
“AI minister gets cabinet seat but DSIT scrapped, leaving no dedicated tech secretary.”
Born in India and raised in Cardiff, Narayan worked in government and business before entering Parliament in 2024 as MP for the Vale of Glamorgan. As Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State under Starmer, his brief spanned AI opportunities, the AI Security Institute, semiconductors and online safety. He is expected to continue shepherding some of those files, though now without Kendall's leadership.
"AI is likely the most significant technology in human history. Its impact will dwarf other things," Narayan wrote on X early Tuesday. "The best case for it is compelling beyond our dreams: a reindustrialised Britain, stronger national security, public services transformed for the better." But he warned that AI also poses real risks to the public, adding that "it is right that the British public shares those worries, for jobs, for the pace of change."
Dom Hallas, head of tech trade body the Startup Coalition, said it was key that with the dismantling of DSIT the government did "not take the foot off the pedal" with tech. The previous department had provided good foundations, he said, and the priority should now be spreading AI adoption through government and the wider public. "The abolition of DSIT is clearly a bad thing but if anyone could make up for it in Cabinet it would be Kanishka who knows start-ups and the ecosystem better than anyone in Government," Hallas told the BBC.
Professor Gina Neff, head of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy at the University of Cambridge, said the minister faces multiple policy challenges, not least how society deals with the threat of AI replacing jobs. But she noted that elevating an AI minister to cabinet at least sent a signal the prime minister was "serious about having someone serious in this key role."