Is it scarier to be on board the AI rocketship or left behind? Maybe ask your digital twin...

ALEX PELL REPORTS FROM LONDON TECH WEEK, WHERE IT APPEARS WE CAN SIT BACK AND LET THE OTHER’ US DO THE WORK

- 

Have we suddenly moved experimenting with AI from to a time of world-changing action? That was the clear message from London Tech Week 2025, the cavernous jamboree of bold ideas, expert talks and debates held at Olympia last week. The stand-out moment was the idea that everyone might soon have a digital twin, able to sort out our lives and earn us free money. A tempting proposition. What else did we learn?

Action stations

It kicked off with Sir Keir Starmer and Jensen Huang, chief executive of tech giant Nvidia, announcing a partnership for Al infrastructure and skills.

Huang, in his trademark leather jacket, schmoozed the crowd by asking if it was scarier to be aboard the Al rocketship or left behind? He reeled off a list of London AI unicorns such as Wayve, Synthesia, Eleven Labs and DeepMind. Starmer unleashed a phalanx of government announcements on Al infrastructure and skills. These were undoubtedly impressive, if perhaps not as bold as they seemed at first glance.

The suits then lined up to boast about how quickly they had already folded Al into everyday work. Fewer of them talked about guardrails, but they definitely had the best gags. "It feels as if we've put the engine of a Ferrari into the chassis of a Fiat Cinquecento," warned Euro Beinat, global head for AI and data science at Prosus Group. "What could possibly go wrong?"

More than human