Jess Bowie

In January last year, ministers promised to “mainline AI into the veins” of the nation. Central to that vision is using artificial intelligence to reshape the work of government itself and save tens of billions of pounds in productivity gains. Yet while ambition saturates the rhetoric, the picture on the ground is far patchier.

Tributes have poured in for Sir Alex Younger, the former head of MI6, who has died aged 62 after being diagnosed with prostate cancer last year. Younger served as chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6, from 2014 to 2020, having first joined the SIS as an intelligence officer in 1991. Before leading MI6, his roles at the secret service included head of operations and leading its work on counter-terrorism in the three years running up to the 2012 Olympic Games.

Early in her career at the UK’s domestic security agency, Manningham-Buller fought for the same opportunities afforded to her male colleagues. Ultimately, her grit and talent saw her go all the way to the top Eliza Manningham-Buller joined MI5 in an era when the Cold War was rumbling on, migration was low, and Britain’s domestic security service kept special kettles for steaming open letters.