LONDON – The United Kingdom wants to construct its own challenger to OpenAI and dramatically expand its national computing infrastructure, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government goals to grow to be a world leader in artificial intelligence.
Starmer will visit Bristol, England, on Monday to announce the commitment, which follows work by British technology investor Matt Clifford to create an “AI Opportunities Action Plan.” The plan goals to assist the UK harness the potential of AI.
The government is primarily in search of to expand data center capability across the UK to support developers of powerful AI models who depend on high-performance computing equipment in distant locations to coach and operate their systems.
A goal has been set to extend the computing capability of the UK's “government” or public sector by 20 times by 2030. As a part of this commitment, the federal government will begin opening access to the AI Research Resource, an initiative to strengthen the UK's computing infrastructure.
Starmer's government last 12 months scrapped £1.3bn of taxpayer-funded spending commitments on two major computing initiatives to prioritize other tax plans. The projects, an AI research resource and a next-generation “exascale” supercomputer, were promised under Starmer’s predecessor Rishi Sunak.
Sovereign AI has grow to be a hot topic for policymakers, especially in Europe. The term refers to the concept that technologies critical to economic growth and national security must be built and developed within the countries where they’re used.
To further strengthen the UK's computing infrastructure, the federal government has also committed to establishing several AI “growth zones”, where constructing permit rules will probably be relaxed in certain locations to permit the creation of latest data centers.
Meanwhile, an “AI Energy Council” of energy and AI industry leaders will probably be established to look at the role of renewable and low-carbon energy sources similar to nuclear power.
Building a challenger to OpenAI
The last major initiative the UK government proposed was to create homegrown AI “champions”. A similar scale to American tech giants liable for the foundational AI models that power today's generative AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT.
Britain plans to make use of the AI Growth Zones and a newly established National Data Library to attach public institutions – similar to universities – to enhance the country's ability to create “sovereign” AI models that don’t depend on Silicon Valley are.
It is price highlighting that the UK faces significant challenges in its try and create an efficient OpenAI alternative. For one, several entrepreneurs within the country have complained about funding challenges that make it difficult for startups within the country to lift the form of money available for AI success stories.
Many British founders and enterprise capitalists have called for the country's pension funds to take a position more of their portfolios in riskier, growth-oriented startups – a reform the federal government has previously pushed.
“There are seven trillion dollars in this pocket in the UK,” Magnus Grimeland, CEO and founding father of enterprise capital firm Antler, said in an interview with CNBC last 12 months. “Imagine taking just 5% of that and using it to innovate – you solve the problem.”
British tech leaders have nonetheless widely praised the federal government's AI motion plan. Zahra Bahrololoumi, Salesforce's UK head, told CNBC the plan was a “forward-looking strategy,” adding that she was encouraged by the federal government's “bold vision for AI and emphasis on transparency, security and collaboration.”
Chintan Patel, Cisco's UK chief technology officer, said he was “encouraged” by the motion plan. “A clearly defined roadmap is critical for the UK to achieve its goal of becoming an AI superpower and a leading destination for AI investment,” he said.
There are still no formal regulations for AI within the UK. Starmer's government has previously said it plans to develop laws for AI – but details are still scant.
Last month the federal government announced a consultation on measures to control using copyrighted content to coach AI models.
In general, the UK sees a special regulatory regime from the EU after Brexit as a positive factor – that’s, it may possibly introduce regulatory oversight of AI, but in a less stringent way than the EU, which has taken a tougher approach with the AI Act to control the technology.
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