Artificial intelligence will be “ingrained in the veins” of the nation, ministers have announced, with a multi-billion pound investment in the UK’s computing capacity, despite widespread public fears over the effects of the technology .
Keir Starmer to launch massive action plan to 20-fold AI computing power under public control by 2030 and deploy AI for everything from pothole detection to bailout teachers to teach.
Labor’s plan to ‘unleash’ AI includes a personal commitment from the Prime Minister to make Britain “the world leader” in a sector that has been transformed by a series of significant advances over the past three years .
The government’s plan outlines a potentially controversial plan to unlock public data to help fuel the growth of AI companies. This includes anonymised data from the NHS, which will be available to “researchers and innovators” to train their AI models. The government says there would be “strong privacy safeguards” and that the data would never belong to private companies.
Ministers believe AI can help tackle the UK’s anemic economic growth and generate, according to its own predictions, an economic recovery of up to £470 billion over the next decade.
This action plan represents a change in tone from the UK government, which had previously focused on tackling the most serious problems. “border” risks of AI, regarding the dangers linked to cybersecurity, disinformation and biological weapons.
Tech companies including Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI welcomed the plan, as Starmer said “the AI industry needs a government that is on its side”. Regulators will be asked to “actively support innovation”, creating a potential conflict with those who believe the primary role of regulators should be to protect the public from harm.
But experts on the effects of AI on society, employment and the environment urge caution. The three words most associated with AI by the public are “robot”, “scary” and “worried”, according to government research last month.
The prime minister also aims to accelerate investment in new miniature nuclear reactors to power this energy-intensive technology.
Susie Alegre, a technology and human rights lawyer, cited the Postal Service scandal “as a reminder of the dangers of trusting too much in technology without the resources needed for effective accountability.”
She said: “Any plans for Britain’s future with AI must consider the real-world consequences for people and the planet and cannot afford to look away from uncomfortable truths. »
Starmer asked every member of his cabinet to make the adoption of AI a top priority and said: “Artificial intelligence will bring incredible change to our country. From teachers customizing courses to helping small businesses maintain their records to expediting scheduling applications, this approach has the potential to transform workers’ lives.
“But the AI industry needs a government that stands by it, that doesn’t stand idly by and let opportunities slip away. In a world of fierce competition, we cannot stand idly by. We must move quickly and act to win the global race. »
The United States currently leads the world in AI, ahead of China, which is well ahead of the United Kingdom in third place, according to Stanford University rankings.
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Meta, sparked controversy last week by relaxing guidelines on hate speech on social media. On Sunday, Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Innovation, insisted that all “illegal content will be removed” in the UK.
But campaigners such as the Molly Rose Foundation, named after Molly Russell, who took her own life after viewing harmful content online, have called for tougher UK legislation to prevent avoidable harm.
As part of the 50-point AI Action Plan, an area of Oxfordshire close to the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s headquarters in Culham will be designated as the first AI growth zone. The government will seek to reposition Britain as a place where AI innovators believe they can create businesses worth trillions of euros. Other zones will be created in “deindustrialized areas of the country with access to electricity”, which have not yet been named.
Multi-billion euro contracts will be signed to build the new public “computing” capacity – the microchips, processing units, memory and cabling that physically enable AI. There will also be a new “supercomputer,” which the government boasts will have enough artificial intelligence to play chess half a million times per second.
Treading cautiously, the Ada Lovelace Institute called for “a road map to tackle the wider harms of AI” and stressed that piloting AI in the public sector “will have real impacts on people “.
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Gaia Marcus, director of the research institute, said she wanted to know how Whitehall would “securely implement these systems as they rapidly evolve” to maintain public trust.
The government has confirmed an initiative to bring together data held by the public sector into a new national data library to “support AI research and innovation”. He did not specify what data would be made available to private companies, but said it would be done “responsibly, securely and ethically.”
Kyle commissioned British technology investor Matt Clifford to develop the AI Opportunity Action Plan almost six months ago. At the time, the government raised the possibility of a productivity gain of 1.5% per year for the economy if AI could increase worker efficiency.
But there are also concerns that it could lead to widespread unemployment, particularly in professional occupations associated with office work and in finance, legal and business management roles.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband will lead with Kyle a new AI energy council to accelerate investment in energy sources, including renewables and pioneering small modular nuclear reactors to power energy-intensive AI systems. Activists around the world have raised security fears about the technology. concerns that they could generate larger quantities of radioactive waste.
The global increase in computing capacity will cost taxpayers billions of pounds over the next five years, according to the Guardian.
More details on funding are expected in the 2025 Spending Review. This investment is separate from the £14 billion announced by private companies to build vast data centers in places like Loughton in Essex and on the site of a former automobile engine factory in south Wales.
The news follows reports that Rachel Reeves was consider steep cuts to public services to help restore government finances. The chancellor has asked her cabinet colleagues to be “ruthless” in finding areas for savings, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Alan Mak, Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, said: “Labour’s plan will not help the UK become a technology and science superpower. They are establishing an analog government in the digital age.
“Shaping a successful AI future requires investment, but in the six months leading up to this plan, Labor cut £1.3 billion in funding for Britain’s first next-generation supercomputer and the research in AI, while imposing a national insurance employment tax which will be costly for businesses across the country. digital sector £1.66 billion.
“AI does indeed have the potential to transform public services, but Labour’s economic mismanagement and uninspiring plan will leave Britain behind.”
The drive to increase the UK’s public AI hardware capacity comes as experts say access to cloud computing could become as important to the UK’s economy, society and security as access to the Internet, electricity or oil and gas.
“Losing access to reliable computers could be catastrophic, comparable to the impact losing national broadband or electricity infrastructure would have today,” a report by think tanks Demos and UK Day One. “This is a matter of economic and national security,” the report said.
A handful of companies provide the majority of the world’s cloud computing, adding to the push for building state-controlled “sovereign” capabilities.