British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was interviewed by the media while attending the 79th United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, USA on September 25, 2024.
Lionel | via Reuters
LONDON — Britain is looking to create a homegrown OpenAI challenger and significantly increase its national computing infrastructure as Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government aims to become a global leader in artificial intelligence.
Starmer will visit Bristol, England, on Monday to announce the commitment, which follows the development of the Artificial Intelligence Opportunities Action Plan by British tech investor Matt Clifford. The program aims to help the UK harness the full potential of artificial intelligence.
The government is primarily looking to expand the capacity of data centers across the UK to facilitate the development of powerful artificial intelligence models that rely on HPC equipment hosted at remote locations to train and run their systems.
A goal has been set to increase the computing power of the UK’s “sovereign” or public sector by 20 times by 2030. As part of this commitment, the government will begin opening up resources for artificial intelligence research, an initiative aimed at strengthening the UK’s computing infrastructure.
Starmer’s government last year scrapped £1.3bn of spending commitments on two key taxpayer-funded computing schemes to prioritize other financial plans. The projects include artificial intelligence research resources and next-generation “exascale” supercomputers, a promise made by Starmer’s predecessor Rishi Sunak.
Sovereign AI has become a hot topic among policymakers, especially in Europe. This term refers to the idea that technologies critical to economic growth and national security should be built and developed in countries where people adopt them.
To further strengthen the UK’s computing infrastructure, the government has also pledged to establish several artificial intelligence “growth areas”, where planning permission rules will be relaxed to allow the creation of new data centers.
At the same time, an “Artificial Intelligence Energy Committee” composed of energy and artificial intelligence industry leaders will be established to explore the role of renewable and low-carbon energy sources such as nuclear energy.
Building an OpenAI challenger
The last major initiative proposed by the British government is to create local artificial intelligence “champions” one It is similar in scale to the US tech giants responsible for the foundational AI models that power today’s generative AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The UK plans to use artificial intelligence growth zones and a newly established national database to connect public institutions such as universities to enhance the country’s ability to create “sovereign” artificial intelligence models that are not dependent on Silicon Valley.
It is worth emphasizing that the UK faces serious challenges in creating effective alternatives to OpenAI. For one, several entrepreneurs in the country have complained about financing challenges, which make it difficult for new startups in the country to raise the funds needed for AI success stories.
Many UK founders and venture capitalists are calling on the country’s pension funds to allocate a larger portion of their portfolios to riskier, growth-focused startups – a change the government has introduced Previously dedicated to promoting.
“In the UK, there’s $7 trillion in this pocket,” Magnus Grimeland, CEO and founder of venture capital firm Antler, told CNBC last year. “Imagine if you took just 5% of that and put it Assign it to innovation – and you’ll solve the problem.”
Despite this, UK tech leaders have generally praised the government’s AI action plan. Salesforce UK boss Zahra Bahrololoumi told CNBC the plan is a “forward-looking strategy,” adding that she was encouraged by the government’s “bold vision for artificial intelligence and its emphasis on transparency, security and collaboration.”
Cisco UK chief technology officer Chintan Patel said he was “encouraged” by the action plan. He said: “Having a clear roadmap is vital for the UK to achieve its ambition to become an AI superpower and a leading destination for AI investment.”
The UK has yet to establish formal regulations on artificial intelligence. Starmer’s government has previously said it plans to introduce artificial intelligence legislation, but details remain sparse.
Last month, the government announced a consultation on measures to regulate the use of copyrighted content to train artificial intelligence models.
More broadly, the UK sees a different post-Brexit regulatory regime as a positive factor from the EU – meaning it could introduce regulation of artificial intelligence, but in a less stringent way than the EU, which has taken a tougher approach. Regulate the technology through the Artificial Intelligence Act.
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