The UK government has announced an ambitious strategy to embed AI throughout the country’s economy and public services. In a speech later today, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will claim that the plan could deliver up to £47bn in annual economic gains over the next decade, citing the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) prediction that productivity would rise by as much as 1.5% annually. The strategy, which adopts all 50 recommendations from the ‘AI Opportunities Action Plan‘ by tech entrepreneur Matt Clifford, aims to modernise whole industries, stimulate investment, and position the UK as a global leader in AI innovation.
The Labour government’s plan builds on work undertaken by its Conservative predecessor, including in the use of AI in select applications within the National Health Service (NHS) and the formulation of several international agreements pertaining to AI safety. Starmer will also signal the UK’s receptiveness to using AI in several new areas. “Artificial intelligence will drive incredible change in our country,” said Starmer, in a statement published earlier this morning. “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.”
Massive investments signal confidence in AI growth
The UK government also announced several AI-themed public initiatives, including the creation of new ‘AI Growth Zones’ to accelerate the planning and approvals process for AI infrastructure, the commissioning of a ‘new team [to] build the UK’s sovereign capabilities’ in AI, and investment to expand the public compute capacity twentyfold beginning with the construction of a new supercomputer — though it remains unclear whether the latter will be a resurrected version of the £800m exascale system it cancelled in August. A new digital hub will also be established within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to pilot and scale AI solutions in public services, aiming to enhance their efficiency and deliver better outcomes for citizens.
Reaction to these announcements has been mixed. Mark Boost, chief executive of UK cloud computing firm Civo, praised the government’s commitment to AI sovereignty. “With this guarantee, public and private sector organisations in healthcare, defence, law and many more will finally be able to deploy AI without fear of breaching data protection controls,” said Boost. “Commitments to skills creation and data centre construction are crucial in the long term, but a team tasked with making the UK world leaders in AI sovereignty can help us quickly leapfrog the international competition and cement the country’s position as a home for innovators who think tech should benefit everyone.”
Cisco also welcomed the UK government’s new AI plan. The firm, said its chief technology officer for the UK and Ireland Chintan Patel, was “encouraged that the government has responded so positively to the proposals from Matt Clifford. Having a clearly defined roadmap is critical for the UK to achieve its ambition to become an AI superpower and a leading destination for AI investment.”
Others were more critical. Jacob Beswick, former assistant director of the UK government’s Office for Artificial Intelligence and now director of AI governance at Dataiku, said that significant challenges for public sector AI deployments remained in the form of data siloization. It was also unclear, said Beswick, how the UK government would fund the implementation of Clifford’s recommendations. With Chancellor Rachel Reeves asking many departments to make swingeing budget cuts, new AI projects would, he added, be “a tough sell for ministers already faced with making large amounts of savings.”
For its part, the Ada Lovelace Institute broadly welcomed the UK government’s AI plan. However, the former’s director, Gaia Marcus, warned ministers that the strategy would require “careful implementation,” not least in safeguarding the personal data of members of the public when it is inevitably used to hone new AI models.
“The public,” said Marcus, “have nuanced and often strong views on the use of their data, particularly in areas such as health. In light of past backlash against medical data sharing, the Government must continue to think carefully about the circumstances under which this kind of sharing will be acceptable to the public. Greater public engagement and deliberation will help in understanding their views.”
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