UK to put £750m towards supercomputer to lead the way in AI technology
The UK will invest £750 million into a national artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputer as part of a £1.1 billion plan to boost British work to develop, deploy and scale AI technologies.
This includes £400 million to buy next generation AI chips, £150 million of which is committed to go to British firms.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves also said the tender process for the Edinburgh supercomputer would soon begin as she spoke about the £1.1 billion AI Hardware Plan.
She also said she was launching an AI advisory roadmap to provide practical guidance on how existing rules apply to emerging AI ahead of legislation to regulate the sector due in the autumn, which she announced in her Mais Lecture in March.
“I announced that we would legislate to give powers to safely test innovative products and services in ways current regulation prohibits.
“The Secretary of State for Business will bring forward that legislation in the autumn and, in advance of that, today, I am launching the Advisory AI Growth Lab, bringing together regulators to provide practical guidance on how existing rules apply to emerging AI applications, with our first focus in legal services,” she told the AI adoption summit in London.
She said she would also publish a financial services AI adoption plan in her Mansion House speech on July 14.
“Three months ago, I set out a strategy. Today, I have shown how we are delivering it: removing barriers to adoption; backing strong, great British firms; building the right infrastructure; and actively managing the transition.
“The countries that succeed in AI will be those that act.
“Britain has the talent, we have the research and the entrepreneurship to drive forward from invention to adoption.”
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Will the cost of electricity put a dent in the running of large AI centers in the UK? It’s the reason the building of large AI data centers are exploding in the USA, cheaper electricity in large part care of the supply of cheap natural gas (many power stations run on local supply of natural gas). UK electricity is 4 times cheaper in the USA!
Yup. Open AI pulled back on planned UK projects in April. Will cost us billions. Having the highest energy prices in the Western world is wrecking us.
A serious government worries about things like data sovereignty, so you’re probably right that we’ll just send our sensitive data overseas to be processed and monetised to save a few quid.
Sounds to me like the Government are being sold the usual promises by American big-tech. Government ministers and civil servants lining themselves up for future jobs as lobbyists and advisers.
What a waste of tax payers money!
Just think what good you could do with £750 MILLION!
Where are these investments going? Presumably the Edinburgh supercomputer will be in Edinburgh but are these labs all in London or will they be spread around the UK?
If the UK was serious about leading AI development it would not have contracted out the AI in the NHS it should be developing it ourselves. The NHS health data is a rare resource that the UK Government doesn’t appear to appreciate the value. We have 80 years of data covering birth to death. There are very few countries with that level of input. And they are paying Palintir to develop tools based from it which they will sell to the world. The UK Government needs to keep the data, develop the AI uses itself then gouge the American healthcare… Read more »