UK Government unveils AI battle plan

The UK Prime Minister is “throwing the full weight of Whitehall” behind the AI industry, states the announcement, by agreeing to take on 50 recommendations set out by venture capitalist Matt Clifford, who was commissioned to put together the AI Opportunities Action Plan.

We’re told this plan has the potential to improve all sorts of aspects of the public sector, such as speeding up planning consultations, help drive down admin for teachers, and feed AI through cameras to spot potholes and help improve roads. 

“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,” said Clifford. “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.”   

It includes initiatives such as AI Growth Zones to speed up planning proposals and build more AI infrastructure, the first of which will be in Culham, Oxfordshire. There are also plans to increase the “public compute capacity by twentyfold” which will start with a new supercomputer, and a new National Data Library to “unlock the value” of public data.

A new team will also be set up to build the UK's sovereign capabilities, and a dedicated AI Energy Council chaired by the Science and Energy Secretaries will be tasked with working with energy companies to understand the energy demands that all this extra AI action will burn through.

All in all the 50 measures will make the UK ‘irresistible’ to AI firms looking to set up shop, we’re told.

“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,” said Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “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. That’s the change this government is delivering.”  

Three tech companies – Vantage Data Centres, Nscale and Kyndryl – have simultaneously announced £14 billion investment in the UK to build AI infrastructure which the release says will deliver 13,250 jobs across the UK. That’s on top of the £25 billion in AI investment announced at the International Investment Summit, we’re told.

Vantage Data Centres plans to invest £12 billion in data centres across the country and create 11,500 jobs, while Kyndryl plans to create up to 1,000 AI-related jobs in Liverpool over the next three years with a new tech hub. Meanwhile Nscale has announced a $2.5 billion investment to support the UK’s data centre infrastructure over the next three years as well as a contract to build the largest UK sovereign AI data centre in Loughton, Essex by 2026.

The announcement comes escorted with quotes of support from an array of AI-related tech firms. Darren Hardman, CEO, 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.”

The Government going ‘all-in’ on AI is described in a somewhat barbed manor in the release as a “marked move from the previous Government’s approach,” which may be a little unfair given there have been government initiatives on AI prior to Labour taking power last year.

In terms of what all this investment and government involvement in AI will bring the UK, the announcement cites an IMF estimates that “if AI is fully embraced” (which seems a nebulous metric) it could boost productivity by as much as 1.5 percentage points a year.

“If fully realised, these gains could be worth up to an average £47 billion to the UK each year over a decade,” states the release.

While this seems like it would be hard to gauge with such specificity, obviously with the state of the country’s finances being what it is, such a boost would no doubt be welcome. On the other side of the coin, as Labour itself lamented that “there's not a huge amount of money” left in the pot as they took power, it could be argued that there are more pressing concerns that could use government treasure and attention, such as schools, hospitals, policing and a thousand other things.

To be fair to the Government, its position is that some sort of groundswell of AI functionality snaking through public institutions will end up helping with all those things. In an op-ed published in the Financial Times this morning, Starmer elaborated on the vision:

“Take waiting times in the NHS. We will use AI to cut them by filling appointments patients can no longer make and quickly rescheduling. Or take your children’s schooling. We will expand opportunities for teachers to use AI to personalise lessons specifically to your child’s needs. The possibilities are endless. AI can support small businesses with their record-keeping. It can spot potholes more quickly. It can help speed up planning applications to get Britain building again. On and on it goes. In the years ahead, barely any aspect of our society will remain untouched. 

“Britain should be excited by this. For one, it offers credible hope of a long-desired boost in public sector productivity. Nurses, social workers, teachers, police officers — for millions of frontline workers, AI can give the precious gift of time. This means they can refocus on the care and connection aspects of their job that so often get buried beneath the bureaucracy. That’s the wonderful irony of AI in the public sector. It provides an opportunity to make services feel more human.”

There is an absolute flood of money pouring into AI development globally, but despite the utopian dreams of some of its progenitors, it’s still far from clear what impacts, good or bad, are going to be felt as a result in the decades to come.

Regardless, the Government clearly wants to position the UK as a leader in the space, and as a place for AI firms to do business – and that’s certainly better than ignoring it. What this positioning actually manifests as in terms of the UK’s public purse and the general state of the nation in the next ten years remains to be seen – but let’s hope the optimism expressed in this initiative is proved correct.