The Industry and Parliament Trust were delighted to take a cross-party group of parliamentarians to visit Meta’s largest UK office building in King’s Cross. We were joined by Steve Race MP, Chris Webb MP, Mark Pritchard MP, Victoria Collins MP and Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge.

Meta is a global leader in technology and innovation, committed to advancing artificial intelligence (A.I) to create meaningful connections and drive societal progress. Meta employs over 5000 people in the UK and their London office is home to their largest engineering hub outside of the US.

The visit began with a tour of the office hosted by Gareth Reakes, VP Engineering and London Site Co-Lead. The office has the capacity for 4000 Meta employees and has landscaped roof gardens, terraces and views over central London, promoting employee wellbeing and biodiversity. There are work hubs, a music room and many cycle spaces for employees to enjoy.

Parliamentarians then heard from Shruti Dube, Country Director UK. Shruti spoke about Meta’s UK operations and how they A.I to help businesses run advertisements and retail campaigns.

Following this, they got the chance to test some Meta technology, including their Ray Bans. They translated phrases into different languages, took photos and videos with the glasses and scanned recipes to get key information all in real-time. Stefan Meister, who covers Innovation Experiences talked through some of the positive benefits of Meta’s open-source Artificial Intelligence tool Llama, which is now split into two models – Scout and Maverick. He explained how large language A.I models are based on processing in a human brain and they discussed how this can be used safely to innovate in many exciting areas, like cancer treatment and detection.

The Meta policy team wrapped up the day by taking questions on the future of A.I and the role UK business can play in technology innovation.

We would like to thank Meta for hosting this visit and for all the parliamentarians who attended.