AI, state capacity, and Britain's technological future

Marc Warner is CEO and co-founder of Faculty, a British AI company that partners with organisations to deploy artificial intelligence in the real world. After beginning his career in quantum physics research at UCL and Harvard, Marc shifted his focus to AI, believing it would be the most important science of the 21st century. Faculty first gained prominence for its fellowship program that helps PhD graduates transition into commercial data science, and later for its critical work with the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic, using AI to predict hospital demand and resource allocation.

Calum and Tom talk to Marc Warner about:

• Britain's missed opportunities in cloud computing and foundation models, and what can still be done to ensure technological sovereignty
• The challenges of aligning AI with human values and controlling frontier models as systems become increasingly powerful
• ⁠Faculty's crucial role during COVID-19, developing world-leading predictive models that helped allocate healthcare resources and save lives
• The bureaucratic obstacles that hinder innovation in government, including procurement rules that favour foreign tech giants over British companies
• How Faculty evolved from an educational fellowship into one of the UK's leading AI companies helping organisations bridge the gap between data and effective decision-making
• How AI's economic transformation could create both extraordinary wealth and potential risks, requiring thoughtful governance approaches