UK Government Seeking to ‘Turbocharge’ Growth Through AI

Earlier this week, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer released a statement and made a subsequent speech unveiling and endorsing his government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan (AOAP). He declared Artificial intelligence (AI) to be “the defining opportunity of our generation” foreshadowing that in the years to come there will be “barely an aspect of our society that will remain untouched by this force of change.”

By increasing 20-fold the amount of AI computing power under public control by 2030, coupled with the mass deployment of AI and dedicated AI growth zones, he is seeking to “turbocharge growth.”

Three Key Pillars

The AOAP can be broken down into three key pillars: lay the foundations to enable AI, change lives by embracing AI, and secure the future of the UK with homegrown AI.

Laying Foundations

The first pillar, laying the foundations to enable AI, concerns the building of sufficient, secure, and sustainable AI Infrastructure. This will be achieved through the implementation of a long-term plan for the UK’s AI infrastructure needs, which will be formulated over the next 6 months and backed by a 10-year investment commitment. The plan will encompass the expanded capacity of the AI Research Resource (AIRR), the establishment of ‘AI Growth Zones’ to facilitate the accelerated build out of AI data centers, and education and diversity initiatives.

Changing Lives

The second pillar of changing lives centres on the mass adoption of AI. This will be achieved through “the adoption of high-performing, trustworthy AI at scale.” A strong theme here in achieving this ‘adoption mission’ is the roles of the public and private sectors and how they work together. The public sector should adopt, pilot, and scale its AI operations to deliver a notable change in public service quality. The private sector needs to remove adoption barriers to drive growth and productivity. Both sectors should reinforce the other through cooperation in order to amplify the impact.

Nurturing Homegrown AI

The final pillar seeks to advance the UK’s standing in AI by having companies and individuals who can act as ‘UK National Champions.’ The creation of a new unit called ‘UK Sovereign AI” will connect the private and public sectors through its power to “lead the delivery of a government offer to new and existing frontier AI companies.”

A Collaborative Venture

A recurring theme throughout the AOAP is how its success is contingent upon support from both the private and public sectors and early responses since the announcement has been positive.  The government announced that in excess of £14 billion pounds worth of investment into the UK, along with thousands of new jobs, was confirmed to them within 48 hours of the AOAP being published. The Local Government Association released a statement welcoming the news. Local Government is a substantial part of the public sector, employing 1.32 million people with a budget of £127.1 billion.

Risks and Reservations

Although the AOAP has been received favorably in most quarters, some concerns have been voiced. Martin Riley, CTO at Bridewell —Microsoft’s leading cybersecurity partner in the UK for CNI—believes that, while the adoption of AI is generally positive, important questions need to be answered. These include broadly what the cybersecurity requirements will look like, how large datasets will be shared and whose property they will be, and how the industry skills shortage will be handled.

Gaia Marcus, Director of the Ada Lovelace Institute—an independent research institute with a mission to ensure data and AI work for people and society—called for greater public engagement and clarification of regulators’ roles to improve understanding. He added that the institute looked forward to “hearing more about how departments will be incentivized to implement these systems safely as they move at pace.”

Cautious Optimism

The government’s proposal is forward-thinking and, initially at least, has been well-received. It is an exciting plan, but AI, as with any emerging technology, has issues and potential harms that should be properly addressed during implementation. It is important to ensure important cybersecurity issues and concerns are not overlooked or dismissed in favor of a prescriptive political timeline.