Government to loosen AI regulation, exploit public-sector data, build data centres in growth zones as it seeks economy boost
The UK government is aiming to make the country an AI “superpower” with a pro-innovation approach to regulation, prime minister Kier Starmer said on Monday.
The AI plan will involve making public data available to researchers and creating growth zones for the development of infrastructure projects such as large data centres.
The government will also aim to use AI to boost the delivery of public services, using it to support the NHS and to spot potholes.
Starmer said he viewed AI as key to economic growth, after a tax-raising budget that impacted business confidence and figures from the Bank of England in December that estimated the UK economy did not grow in the fourth quarter.
Economic growth
The government believes AI could increase productivity by 1.5 percent a year and add an extra £47 billion a year to the economy.
“Britain will be one of the great AI superpowers,” Starmer said at University College London, adding that the technology has “vast potential”.
“We’re going to make the breakthroughs, we’re going to create the wealth, and we’re going to make AI work for everyone in our country,” he said.
Starmer said the UK would create a “pro-growth and pro-innovation” regulatory environment for AI, saying the country’s departure from the EU in 2020 provided regulatory flexibility.
“We are now in control of our regulatory regime so we will go our own way on this,” he said.
“We will test and understand AI before we regulate it to make sure that when we do it, it’s proportionate and grounded.”
Data from the NHS and other government-controlled data will be added to a “National Data Library” and made available to researchers subject to copyright rules.
Growth zones will be created with accelerated planning permissions and energy connections, facilitating the construction of the large, power-hungry data centres required by cutting-edge AI systems.
Data centres
The first such data centre is planned to be in Culham, Oxfordshire, home to the Atomic Energy Authority.
Starmer said the government would adopt these measures and others found in the 50 recommendations in the “AI Opportunities Action Plan” from venture capitalist Matt Clifford, the government’s AI adviser.
Leading tech firms back the plan and have committed £14bn toward various projects from it, creating 13,250 jobs, the government said.
Acting on Clifford’s recommendations, the government is now planning to invest in a new supercomputer, a change in strategy after it scrapped the previous government’s plans for a supercomputer at Edinburgh University.
Starmer said the UK already leads Europe in AI investment.
The UK ranked third on AI behind the US and China, scoring high in research and development, as well as educational infrastructure with high-ranking computer science universities providing a skilled AI workforce, found a study from Stanford University in November.
