Sunak will be working as a senior adviser for both Microsoft and Anthropic whilst remaining a UK member of parliament in Yorkshire, England. Reportedly delighted to be working with both companies, Sunak plans to donate his earnings to a charity he founded, the Richmond Project.
He said he will use his role to ensure that upcoming technological change “delivers the improvements in all our lives” and added: “I have long believed that technology will transform our world and play a key part in determining our future.
“We stand on the edge of a technological revolution whose impacts will be as profound as those of the industrial revolution: and felt more quickly. In my role as a senior adviser, I want to help these companies ensure that this shift delivers the improvements in all of our lives that it can.”
He will not be advising either company on UK policy matters.
Having been prime minister from 2022 to 2024, Sunak played a key role in getting the UK government to engage with international technology businesses. The world’s first Global AI Safety Summit was held under his leadership at Bletchley Park in the UK in 2023 to signal a global commitment towards safeguarding the world from AI threats.
Speaking at the time, Sunak said: “Fulfilling the vision we have set to keep AI safe is not the work of a single summit. The UK is proud to have brought the world together and hosted the first summit. But it requires an ongoing international process to stay ahead of the curve on the science and see through all the collaboration we have begun today.”
This isn’t the first time a UK party leader has joined the technology industry after serving in the government. Former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg was working as president, global affairs at Meta as the company’s chief decision-maker on policy until recently.
US President Donald Trump is also very interested in AI, amid the global technology race, having championed the Stargate initiative at the start of the year.
Sunak’s senior political adviser, Liam Booth-Smith, also took a role with Anthropic in June.
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Picture credit: Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 / Deed.
