Speeches by McEvoy.

“We have heard on the derisking point that it is really important that the National Wealth Fund derisk some of these key growth sectors. If you were in charge of it, would you derisk the projects now, at this time in the Parliament, to get out of the blocks and get these projects off the ground, and then wait for the re…”

“It needs to be spent, does it not? That is the first metric of success.”

“This Government are absolutely determined to reset public procurement for SMEs. In places such as Darlington, we have fantastic SMEs that employ local people, drive local growth, have great terms and conditions, and are a source of local pride. For too long, those SMEs have been missing out because they do not have the…”

“In my Darlington constituency, we have a fantastic engineering firm called Cummins. I recently visited the plant, and I want to bring hon. Members’ attention to the fact that they have automated a lot of their processes and, in doing so, have grown their workforce. They have upskilled, reskilled and hired more on the b…”

“The advances happening so quickly: whether you would buy it out so that nobody could use it if it were going to undermine stability or the whole model’s use.”

“We are going to move on to algorithmic trading and generative AI. I thought we could start off with Mr Otudeko. Where do you put yourself in terms of being a sceptic or a zealot for the adoption of more algorithmic trading, more bots trading on our markets?”

“With AI, particularly generative AI, in our trading markets and the future of more bot trading what is your analysis of the risks versus opportunities that that brings?”

“Jana Mackintosh, in your analysis are you a zealot or a sceptic of specifically algorithmic trading and the use of AI in that?”

“Can I push you on that? What benefits to the sector would we get?”

“There is machine learning and then there is specifically bots trading, replacing—to go to Dr Sandher’s point—existing jobs with AI-generated traders. I think we are all up to speed with the benefits of productivity and in some of the back-office processes but in terms of taking those transactions there are some serious…”

“They are not being used in this country at the moment?”

“Mr Luther, I will come to you because I think you might have something you want to add on this. First, where do you put yourself, sceptic or zealot?”

“For clarity on that point, that is where somebody operates it but are using a machine for efficiency and to make it quicker and basically using a computer to trade?”

“From what you have said, you think we do have enough regulation to be able to move with the technology advances in this space. You said about where certain scenarios arise there is a kill switch. What sort of scenarios? Can you speculate with the introduction of more robot traders what that would mean?”

“Sorry, I am just really interested in this subject. In a recent speech a member of the Financial Policy Committee, Jonathan Hall, expressed concern that AI trading could be incentivised to amplify shocks because of where they get their source material from. Do we have enough regulation in this country to prevent that a…”

“It’s a huge subject!”

“To follow very quickly on that point, because the Chair is going to tell me off, it could be that if there is a load of AI firms watching this they are thinking, “We could have robot traders. We could have more technology but at the moment we do not have anyone to translate it to the people who would be responsible for…”

“So cybersecurity: another fun topic for us to dip our toes into. Maybe for Ms Mackintosh, how much has AI boosted the ability and capacity of cybercriminals?”

“We could use this new technology to protect ourselves against cybersecurity, the increased cybersecurity attacks from AI in the first place?”

“On that point, is there a scenario where firms might buy technology to not use it so that nobody else can use it—things like some of the models that are advancing at the moment? You talked about the open-source models. I am not sure they will be up for sale in the same way. What is your speculation on that for your sec…”