The NHS can give out patient data for training AI models and still ‘keep control’, Keir Starmer says – as he vows to make the UK a ‘superpower’ in the technology [Video]

10:27 EST 13 Jan 2025, updated 11:28 EST 13 Jan 2025

The NHS can give out patient data for training AI models and still ‘keep control’, Keir Starmer insisted today.

The PM defended allowing anonymised details to be used as he vowed to make the UK a ‘superpower’ in the technology.

In a speech in London, Sir Keir argued that deploying systems could save huge sums for the public sector and turbocharge the economy. 

The government has published a review of AI ‘opportunities’ with a 50-point action plan for seizing them.

The health service is set to make its collection of scans, biodata and anonymised patient records available to train new AI models.

Asked about how companies and researchers could use the proposed national data library, Sir Keir Starmer told reporters: ‘It is important that we keep control of that data, I completely accept that challenge, and we will do so.

‘But I don’t think that we should have a …