In late 2029 the British Government declared the introduction of a new form of ID that combined together all identification into one single digital-enabled card. This is linked to an account you have with the government, and you can use it either from your phone through an app or with a physical card. They called it the UK-ID. These are common around the world now but Britain was the first place to really push for them, you probably remember this. What's less talked about is the system that they announced alongside it, that being what people call the ANGEL Button.
Both of these saw a lot of resistance from people. They started petitions against them on the government website, but as is usually the case, if the government wants something they'll do it, no matter how many people oppose it. They debated both petitions in parliament but both items were passed through regardless and the petitions were turned down.
They introduced the UK-ID late the next year, and it was like Tony Blair's BritCard idea on steroids. It folded in every piece of information the government had about you. Criminal record, NHS records, personal details, name changes, marital status, immigration records, national insurance, pension, benefits, employment record, and when data vendors were mandated to provide the government with a copy of the data they had on UK residents your digital footprint was added to that as well. You can see why people protested against it but it didn't do much.
Well, fast forward 3 years (in 2033) and the government actually managed to get into production the second system they had in mind, which was a way to lessen the load on emergency services. They named it the ANGEL Network, and installed boxes across the country you could operate with your UK-ID to summon an "ANGEL" when you had any "non-emergency issues". The reason behind this is that supposedly the NHS, police, and fire departments were stretched too thin, so they wanted to lessen the load on them. They got Boston Dynamics to make these walking robots that can be deployed when you insert your id card into an ANGEL box and press the button. They know everything there is to know about you and can help with small problems like breaking up bar fights, or calming you down during a panic attack, or even walk you home at night if you're scared (and tbh there's plenty of reason for that nowadays.)
The AI for them was interestingly enough developed by a company called Serco. These guys are pretty notorious in Britain as the one company who made all the refugee camps back in the 20s, but they're really just the one company that will do anything the British government asks them to. Their name stands for SERvices COmpany, SerCo. Because of this contract though, they quickly became the biggest AI company in Britain, so much so the government actually filed an antitrust lawsuit against them, so they split up into a temporary subsidiary company called sercoAI, or sAI for short. It's kinda stupid, because the government gave them this contract, but I guess they filed the lawsuit because they were supposed to. The end result is not very different it's just a subsidiary as opposed to the main company, but there is a clause that the government can request the subsidiary be made independent "if they deem it is required".
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