PM plans to 'unleash AI' across UK to boost growth

The government is to set out plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) across the UK to boost growth and deliver public services more efficiently.

The AI Opportunities Action Plan being announced on Monday will be backed by leading tech firms, which are said to have committed £14bn towards various projects, creating 13,250 jobs, the government said.

It includes plans for growth zones where development will be focused, and the technology will be used to help tackle issues such as potholes.

“I want to make sure that it benefits everyone from every background, that it benefits every community, from every part of the UK,” Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle told the BBC.

The government tasked AI adviser Matt Clifford with creating a UK action plan for supporting the growth of artificial intelligence and its use in public services.

He came back with 50 recommendations which are now being implemented.

Among these is for the UK to invest in a new supercomputer to boost computing power – marking a change in strategy after the Labour government ditched the previous government’s plans for a supercomputer at Edinburgh University.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said AI “will drive incredible change” in the country and “has the potential to transform the lives of working people”.

“Our plan will make Britain the world leader,” Sir Keir said.

Kyle told the BBC there was no reason why the UK could not create tech companies on the same scale as Google, Amazon, and Apple.

“At the moment, we don’t have any frontier conceptual, cutting-edge companies that are British-owned.”

He highlighted DeepMind, which created technology enabling computers to play video and board games, as an example of a former British-born company that was now US-owned.

It was founded by three University College London students before its acquisition by Google.

Professor Dame Wendy Hall said the government’s plans were “ambitious”, but necessary to help the UK keep up with the pace of development.

“It’s an ambitious plan but there’s a lot of upfront investment,” she told the Today programme.

“It will take some time to see a return on that investment and they’ve got to be in it for the long-term.”

The AI industry has been waiting a while for this kind of firepower to go along with government backing.

It follows Rishi Sunak’s focus during his time as Prime Minister on making the UK an AI “superpower” that could rival the US and China.

At the time, many of Sunak’s proposals were geared towards mitigating future risks of highly powerful AI systems.

His government’s emphasis on “safety” seems largely absent in this new plan – instead focusing on maximising opportunities, growth and innovation.

Among the government’s proposals are:

• AI will be used by the public sector to enable its workers to spend less time doing admin and more time delivering services.
• Several “AI Growth Zones” around the UK will be created, involving big building projects and new jobs.
• AI will be fed through cameras around the country to inspect roads and spot potholes that need fixing
• Teachers and small business owners were highlighted as two groups that could start using AI for things like faster planning and record-keeping.
• AI is already being used in UK hospitals for important tasks such as diagnosing cancer more quickly and it will continue to be used to support the NHS.

The government has also proposed a boost to UK infrastructure as part of the plan, with tech firms committing £14bn towards large data centres or tech hubs.

But shadow science secretary Alan Mak said Labour was “delivering analogue government in a digital age”.

While the push towards AI is seen as way of cutting down on public spending, Mak accused Labour of undermining this goal with its economic policies.

“Labour’s economic mismanagement and uninspiring plan will mean Britain is left behind,” he said.

Tim Flagg, chief operating officer of UKAI – a trade body representing British AI businesses – said the proposals take a “narrow view” of the sector’s contributors and focus too much on big tech.

“AI innovation spans industries, from small enterprises to non-tech sectors, all driving the new industrial revolution,” he said.

“It’s time the government recognised this broader definition and tapped into the full potential of AI across the UK.”

There are continuing questions over the risks of introducing AI systems that can “hallucinate” or make things up, or discriminate against certain groups of people due to bias.

Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden said “we’re only at the foothills of this” and AI was a developing technology.

He said a government-developed AI teaching assistant had been used by about 30,000 teachers in England so far.

“It saves teachers about three-and-half hours a week – gives them their Sunday evening back, if you like, in terms of lesson preparation and classroom preparation,” he told BBC Breakfast.

McFadden said AI applications used by the health service can detect some cancers earlier which are not detectable by the human eye.

However he acknowledged AI was “not perfect” after Apple faced calls to withdraw a controversial feature that generated inaccurate news alerts on its latest iPhones.

“We’ve got to have an eye on safety as well as opportunity,” McFadden said.

“The truth is, you can’t just opt out of this. Or if you do, you’re just going to see it developed elsewhere.”