This month Technology Secretary Liz Kendall announced that Barnsley is to become the UK's first Tech Town, with an initiative that aims to "put the full heft of government behind the town's rollout of AI across everything from education to health and more." While for some the thought of AI with everything might sound more like a threat than a promise, the Tech Town initiative is pledging to digitally transform Barnsley and build up local tech talent, regenerating the region and serving as a template for the government's AI-powered ambitions for the rest of the UK too. But while the talent will be drawn from the region the industry giants supporting Tech Town - including Microsoft, Cisco, Google and Adobe - hail from further afield, which has raised a few concerns.

"It's exciting to see government ambition to develop AI-led tech towns outside the traditional tech hubs, and Barnsley's designation as the UK's first government-backed Tech Town marks a bold step in bringing AI into schools, healthcare and local business," commented Mark Boost, Civo CEO. "However, there's a real risk that the way this is playing out leans too heavily on US tech giants, like Microsoft."

"This approach can help bootstrap innovation in the short term, but it also means the UK may end up importing the technology and value rather than building its own sovereign capabilities here. Much of the data, infrastructure and ultimately the commercial value created may flow back overseas, rather than staying in the UK to support future British AI leadership. If the UK truly wants to be a global AI trailblazer, we need to balance international partnership with UK-owned and UK-controlled data, cloud and AI platforms, so that skills, innovation and economic gains stay onshore and benefit communities like Barnsley as well as the wider economy."

As Liz Kendall said in her announcement, "If we are going to get AI to work for Britain, we need Britons and British public services that can work with AI." Time will tell if that proves to be the case.

Finally this month nominations are now open to determine the 2026 Network Computing Awards finalists, so please visit the awards website to make yours!

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