Liam Wilkinson

I’m Liam Wilkinson. I’m an AI engineer interested in making complicated things understandable and useful. That takes me across software, law, history and government. I like learning from people who see things differently, and building things together that help public institutions work better.

This site is my personal notebook. The subjects wander: AI, law, consciousness, classical antiquity, Renaissance Italy. The connection is usually a system I want to understand, or one I think we could make better.

My background

I started in cybersecurity through a degree apprenticeship, working on decision-support systems for national security and defence. I went on to Microsoft, then became a No. 10 Innovation Fellow and helped establish the UK government’s Incubator for Artificial Intelligence. There, I led incubation for early-stage projects and helped build tools including Redbox, Lex and Parlex.

I now work at the Tony Blair Institute, building AI with governments around the world. My current focus is Codify: helping countries turn their statute books into clear, machine-readable law.

My time as an Innovation Fellow

On my first morning at Number 10, I got my laptop at 9:30. At 10, I was in my first product meeting for Redbox. I had arrived as an engineer and was learning to be a product manager. There was plenty to learn, and real work to do.

I choose environments where there are people I can learn from. The fellowship gave that instinct a purpose: helping public institutions become more capable. The lessons from Redbox went into Lex and Parlex, alongside colleagues who brought different skills and challenged my thinking.

If you enjoy building things, learning quickly and getting to grips with how government works, I’d encourage you to explore the No. 10 Innovation Fellowship. It is a way to bring your skills to problems that matter to people’s lives.

Explore the fellowship and how to get involved

What I’m working on

Making the law legible. Clear, citable, machine-readable law is public infrastructure. For the Love of Law is the closest thing here to a mission statement.

Testing what AI can actually do. CivBench puts AI agents inside Civilization VI to study how they perceive the world, sustain a strategy and follow through on their plans.

Keeping track of the sources. The library collects the works, people and ideas behind these essays, with a record of how each entry was produced and checked.

Selected talks & contributions

Sharing what we’ve learned, and learning from people working on the same problems elsewhere.

Sharing government knowledge

G7 GovAI Grand Challenge · Impact Canada

I joined the expert webinar to discuss institutional memory and demonstrate how open legislation data can help governments work with their own laws.

Read the webinar transcript

Building AI for the public good

California Department of Technology

I shared lessons from the UK’s Incubator for AI with California’s government AI community: building useful tools and the institutional capability to put them to work.

Read California’s account

Making AI useful in government

AccelerateGOV · 2025

A conversation about public trust, getting data ready for use, and attracting technical people who want their work to matter.

Read the discussion highlights

Applying AI to the legislative process

Cross Government Software Engineering Conference · January 2025

I spoke to fellow government engineers about applying AI to legislation, drawing on our work to make legal information easier to find and use.

Read the conference account

AI & Elections

St George’s House · 30 September–1 October 2024

I joined a consultation on AI, election integrity and public trust, exploring practical safeguards against misinformation and ways to strengthen democratic resilience.

About me