The prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has pledged Britain’s future prosperity on artificial intelligence (AI) with a plan intended to “unleash a decade of national renewal”.
In a speech today, the prime minister said the plan will make Britain an AI “superpower”,adding that the technology will transform how people live, work, and do business.
Unleashing AI will – it is claimed – help drive economic growth, speed up planning, raise living standards, and put more money in people’s pockets; key themes for Labour since before the party took office.
“[W]e will put the full weight of the British state behind this,” the prime minister said in his speech. “I am determined the UK becomes the best place to start and scale an AI business. That will be the centrepiece of our Industrial Strategy. There has never been a better moment for entrepreneurs with big ideas to grow a small company fast.”
The government has agreed to back the 50 recommendations set out by Matt Clifford CBE, tech entrepreneur and chair of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency, in his AI Opportunities Action Plan to drive this 21st Century Industrial Revolution.
According to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT), if AI is fully embraced, then it could be worth up to an average £47bn to the UK over a decade.
Clifford said: “This is a plan which puts us all-in – backing the potential of AI to grow our economy, improve lives for citizens, and make us a global hub for AI investment and innovation.
“AI offers opportunities we can’t let slip through our fingers, and these steps put us on the strongest possible footing to ensure AI delivers in all corners of the country, from building skills and talent to revolutionising our infrastructure and compute power.”
The plan includes initiatives that the DSIT says will help make the UK “the number one place” for AI firms to invest; vital if Britain is to be at the forefront of this industry and “be a change-maker rather than a change-taker”.
The key changes include:
- Creating so-called AI Growth Zones to speed up planning proposals and build more AI infrastructure. The first of these will be in Culham, Oxfordshire
- Increasing the public compute capacity by twentyfold to provide the processing power needed to fully embrace this new technology
- A new team will be set up to seize the opportunities of AI and build the UK’s sovereign capabilities
- The creation of a new National Data Library to safely and securely unlock the value of public data and support AI development
- A dedicated AI Energy Council chaired by the science and energy secretaries will also be established, DSIT says. This will work with energy companies to understand the energy demands and challenges that will affect the technology’s development. This will look at tapping into technologies like small modular reactors
Cradle of computer science
Starmer said: “Artificial Intelligence will drive incredible change in our country. From teachers personalising lessons, to supporting small businesses with their record-keeping, to speeding up planning applications, it has the potential to transform the lives of working people.
“But the AI industry needs a government that is on their side, one that won’t sit back and let opportunities slip through its fingers. And in a world of fierce competition, we cannot stand by. We must move fast and take action to win the global race.
“Our plan will make Britain the world leader. It will give the industry the foundation it needs and will turbocharge the Plan for Change. That means more jobs and investment in the UK, more money in people’s pockets, and transformed public services.”
Peter Kyle, science, innovation, and technology secretary, said: “AI has the potential to change all of our lives but for too long, we have been curious and often cautious bystanders to the change unfolding around us. With this plan, we become agents of that change.
“We already have remarkable strengths we can tap into when it comes to AI – building our status as the cradle of computer science and intelligent machines and establishing ourselves as the third largest AI market in the world.
“This government is determined that the UK is not left behind in the global race for AI, that’s why the actions we commit to will ensure that the benefits are spread throughout the UK so all citizens will reap the rewards of the bet we make today. This is how we’re putting our Plan for Change in motion.”
The chancellor of the exchequer, Rachel Reeves, added: “AI is a powerful tool that will help grow our economy, make our public services more efficient and open up new opportunities to help improve living standards.
“This action plan is the government’s modern industrial strategy in action. Attracting AI businesses to the UK, binging in new investment, creating new jobs and turbocharging our Plan for Change. This means better living standards in every part of the United Kingdom and working people have more money in their pocket.”
Meanwhile, three major tech companies – Vantage Data Centres, Nscale and Kyndryl – have committed to £14bn investment in the UK to build the AI infrastructure needed to harness the potential of this technology. It’s claimed the investment will deliver 13,250 jobs across the UK.
This commitment is on top of the £25bn in AI investment announced at the recent International Investment Summit, DSIT says.
Vantage Data Centres – which is working to build one of Europe’s largest data centre campuses in Wales – plans to invest over £12bn in data centres across the UK – creating over 11,500 jobs in the process.
Kyndryl – an IT infrastructure services provider and IT consultancy – has announced plans to create up to 1,000 AI-related jobs in Liverpool over the next three years.
While Nscale – said to be one of the UK’s leading AI companies – has announced a $2.5bn investment to support the UK’s data centre infrastructure over the next three years. The company has also signed a contract to build the largest UK sovereign AI data centre in Loughton, Essex by 2026.
Reaction
Darren Hardman, chief executive, Microsoft UK, said: “The scale of this government’s ambition for AI development and adoption in the UK is exactly what’s needed to drive economic growth, transform public services and create new opportunities for all.
“Maintaining the UK’s position as a global leader in AI demands innovation and investment across the public and private sectors and Microsoft is fully committed to helping make this vision a reality.”
Mike Beck, global chief information security officer at Darktrace, said: “The ambitious and wide-ranging recommendations in the AI Opportunities Action Plan have the potential to turn AI into an engine for the UK economy.
“As a home-grown AI company, we know that the UK has world-class research talent, brilliant institutions and a strong tech ecosystem. Governments can and should move at a faster pace to help realise the benefits of rapid technological change, and we look forward to the government swiftly implementing this Plan. This will help to turn AI from abstract opportunity to real-world benefit in offices and shop floors across the country.
“Companies and consumers also need to be confident that AI innovation is safe and secure. The upcoming Cyber Security and Resilience Bill offers the opportunity to better safeguard data and AI infrastructure, and it will be important to ensure a more digitised and AI-enabled public sector is secure and trusted.”
Dario Amodei, co-founder and chief executive of Anthropic, said: “The UK’s AI Opportunities Action Plan is a bold approach that could help unlock AI’s potential to solve real problems. By combining infrastructure investment with strategic planning, the UK could be among the first and fastest governments in the world to transform how services are delivered to its citizens. We look forward to working with them to turn this vision into a reality.”
Alex Kendall OBE, co-founder and chief executive, Wayve, said: “Embodied AI in highly regulated sectors, like automated vehicles, will require international regulatory collaboration.
“I’m excited to see the government use the levers at its disposal to help make the UK’s leading AI startups winners on the global stage. We now welcome the new targeted support for international expansion for AI scale-ups, and will pursue our global growth goals with the confidence that we have the UK government’s full support.”
Chris Lehane, chief global affairs officer at OpenAI, said: “From the locomotive to the Colossus computer, the UK has a rich history of leadership in tech innovation and the research and development of AI.
“The government’s AI action plan – led by the prime minister and secretary Peter Kyle – recognises where AI development is headed and sets the UK on the right path to benefit from its growth. The UK has an enormous national resource in the talent of its people, institutions and businesses which together, can leverage AI to advance the country’s national interest.”
Aidan Gomez, co-founder and chief executive of Cohere, said: “With AI unlocking productivity gains and boosting business growth, we welcome the government’s focus and attention to foster this generational economic transformation.
“Cohere has long viewed the UK as a hotbed of industry talent and a market highly supportive of technology innovation, which is why we were among the earliest foundational model companies to build a major presence in the country, and why we have doubled down here over the last year.”
Tim Bestwick, deputy chief executive, UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), said: “AI and High-Performance Computing are central to UKAEA’s mission to lead the delivery of sustainable fusion energy.
“UKAEA welcomes the AI Opportunities Action Plan and its vision for building cutting-edge AI infrastructure to drive innovation and develop the ‘industries of the future’. As highlighted in the Action Plan, Culham Campus’ high-capacity and connection to the UK’s national electricity grid, coupled with its available land on the Campus, positions it as a prime location for deploying substantial computing facilities.”
Julian David OBE, chief executive of techUK, said: “Through this announcement the Prime Minister has set out how the Government sees AI as central to their plan for change. These well thought out initiatives will boost the UK’s AI capabilities with positive effects across our society and economy.
“Now that the government has set out its Plan, it is time to act, and at pace. To drive new investment, Industry will want to see more detail on how this plan will be actioned within the next six months, particularly as we face growing competition from other countries.”
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