British Prime Minister Keir Starmer gives a media interview while attending the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, United States, on September 25, 2024.
Leon Neal | Via Reuters
LONDON – The United Kingdom is looking to build a home-grown competitor to OpenAI and dramatically increase its national computing infrastructure, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government sets its sights on becoming a global leader in artificial intelligence.
Starmer is scheduled to visit Bristol, England, on Monday to announce the pledge, which follows work by British technology investor Matt Clifford to develop an “AI Opportunities Action Plan.” The plan aims to help the UK harness the potential of artificial intelligence.
The government is primarily seeking to expand data center capacity across the UK to foster developers of powerful AI models that rely on high-performance computing equipment hosted in remote locations to train and operate their systems.
The goal of increasing the UK's “sovereign” or public sector computing capacity twenty-fold by 2030 has been set. As part of this pledge, the government will begin opening up access to artificial intelligence research resources, an initiative aimed at boosting the UK's computing infrastructure.
Starmer administration last year Eliminate £1.3 billion of taxpayer-funded spending commitments Towards two important computer initiatives to prioritize other financial plans. The projects, artificial intelligence research resources and next-generation supercomputer exascale, were pledges made under Starmer's predecessor, Rishi Sunak.
Sovereign AI has become a hot topic for policymakersespecially in Europe. The term refers to the idea that technologies vital to economic growth and national security should be built and developed in the countries where people adopt them.
In order to boost Britain's computing infrastructure, the government has also committed to creating several AI “growth zones”, where planning permission rules will be relaxed in certain places to allow the creation of new data centres.
Meanwhile, an “AI Energy Council” consisting of industry leaders from both energy and AI will be established to explore the role of renewable and low-carbon energy sources, such as nuclear power.
Building a competitor to OpenAI
The last major initiative proposed by the UK government was to create local AI “champions”. A On a similar scale to the US tech giants responsible for the foundational AI models that power current generative AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT.
Britain plans to use AI Growth Zones and a newly created National Data Library to connect public institutions – such as universities – to boost the country's ability to create “sovereign” AI models that are not dependent on Silicon Valley.
It should be noted that the UK faces serious challenges in its attempt to create an effective alternative to OpenAI. For example, many entrepreneurs in the country have complained about funding challenges that make it difficult for startups in the country to raise funds available for AI success stories.
Many UK founders and venture capitalists have called on the country's pension funds to allocate a larger portion of their portfolios to riskier, growth-focused startups – a reform the government has implemented. Commitment to payment in advance.
“In the UK, there is $7 trillion in that pocket,” Magnus Grimland, CEO and founder of venture capital firm Antler, told CNBC in an interview last year. “Imagine if you took just 5% of that amount and allocated it to innovation, you would solve the problem.”
However, UK technology leaders generally praised the government's AI action plan. Zahra Bharloloumi, head of Salesforce in the UK, told CNBC the plan is a “forward-thinking strategy,” adding that she is encouraged by the government’s “bold vision for AI and focus on transparency, safety and collaboration.”
Chintan Patel, chief technology officer at Cisco UK, said he was “encouraged” by the business plan. “A clearly defined roadmap is crucial for the UK to achieve its ambition of becoming an AI superpower and a leading destination for AI investment,” he said.
Britain does not yet have formal regulations for artificial intelligence. The Starmer government has said so before Plans to create legislation for artificial intelligence But the details remain thin.
Last month, the government announced consultations on this Measures to regulate the use of copyrighted content to train AI models.
More generally, the UK suggests a different regulatory regime to the EU post-Brexit as a positive factor, meaning it could offer regulatory oversight of AI but in a less stringent manner than the EU, which has taken a more stringent approach. A tough approach to regulating technology through the Artificial Intelligence Act.
