.jpg)
The British government is betting heavily on AI. In January, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology, Peter Kyle, unveiled an AI Opportunities Action Plan devised by Matt Clifford, an entrepreneur who chairs the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency. The Plan seeks to make Britain a global leader in the field of AI in order to reap the benefits of increased productivity and economic activity.
Goals and principles
The Plan is founded on three core goals that would see the British government:
- Invest in the foundations of AI
- Embrace AI in order to change lives
- Position the UK as “an AI maker, not an AI taker”
In addition, Clifford articulated four goals which guided his recommendations:
- The British government should be on the side of innovators. As Clifford put it, “[i]n every element of the Action Plan, the government should ask itself: does this benefit people and organizations trying to do new and ambitious things in the UK?”
- Invest in becoming a great customer. Clifford believes that the British government could use its purchasing power to help improve the delivery of public services and shape new markets for AI.
- Crowd in capital and talent. In order to succeed, Britain must attract top-tier talent in order to attract funding from global investors.
- Build on UK strengths and catalytic emerging areas. Clifford notes that UK companies are already involved in AI application and integration and he believes that Britain could build on this foundation in order to move into other areas such as AI for science and robotics.
Investing in the foundation of AI
The development of AI is inextricably linked to computational power (also known as ‘compute’). This isn’t just a technical matter, as Clifford argues that investing in compute “sends an important signal to academic, technical and entrepreneurial talent and is a critical ingredient of innovation.” He envisions three types of compute:
- Sovereign compute that is owned or allocated by the public sector.
- Domestic compute that is owned and operated by the private sector.
- International compute that is based overseas but made accessible to Britain via reciprocal agreements and partnerships.
Clifford recommends that the British government establish a long-term plan for promoting compute along with a 10-year investment commitment. He also proposes that the government should aim for a 20-fold increase in the capacity of the AI Research Resource (a collection of supercomputers) by 2030.
In addition, Clifford suggests that the UK should create a National Data Library to consolidate and provide access to high-quality datasets. This would include material from the government as well as material from the private sector. Clifford also recommends the creation of a copyright-cleared training set based on British media assets that could incorporate material from entities such as the National Archives, the BBC, and the Natural History Museum.
To promote the safe use of AI, Clifford suggests that the government’s AI Security Institute should continue its support of cutting-edge research into AI security. Regulators should also be encouraged to prioritize the safe adoption of AI within their jurisdictions.
Clifford also proposes using ‘AI Growth Zones’ (AIGZ) to speed up the creation of AI datacenters. In the UK, planning permission is generally required before anyone can build on land or change its use, and the planning process can be quite time consuming to navigate. But AIGZ could offer a streamlined approach to speed up development. They could also be used to areas that have suffered from the loss of traditional industries.
Embracing AI to change lives
Clifford argues that the public sector could foster the development of AI by promoting its use within government. He advocates a ‘scan > pilot > scale’ model where the government identifies a use case for AI, develops a prototype solution, and then applies the solution as broadly as possible. The latter bit is particularly important since Clifford believes that “scale is essential if AI is to have a meaningful impact on productivity, effectiveness and citizen experience, as well as maximizing government spending power.”
Widespread adoption of AI by the government could also provide a powerful incentive for the private sector to follow suit.
DSIT and others with AI expertise within government can play a critical role in combining with those who have a deep understanding of their sectors to engage business leaders, identify high-potential use cases, co-design targeted interventions to promote them and overcome barriers to adopting them.
Furthermore, AI Sector Champions could act as cheerleaders for AI within various sectors such as life sciences, finance, and the creative industries.
Positioning the UK as an “AI maker, not an AI taker”
Clifford believes that Britain can’t afford to allow other countries to take the lead in AI development.
Just as with previous technological revolutions, the people and countries who make decisions about how these systems operate and what values they reflect - including their approach to safety - will have huge influence over our lives.
Essentially, Clifford argues that, if AI is developed in the UK, it will allow Britain to play an outsized role in the field.
But Clifford warns that it won’t be enough to sit back and let the market underwrite the development of next-generation AI. Instead, the government will need to play a more active role. For example, the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry helped their economy grow and transform following World War II. It achieved this by setting industrial policy, facilitating Japanese access to foreign technology, and coordinating domestic research into new technologies.
To that end, Clifford proposes that the British government should establish a new unit called UK Sovereign AI which would focus on maximizing the UK’s stake in frontier AI. This could be achieved by:
- Direct investment into companies
- Facilitating access to compute through domestic opportunities and foreign partnerships
- Encouraging top talent to relocate to the UK
Critiques of the AI Action Plan
The overall response to the AI Action Plan has been positive, though some experts want the government to do more to combat the potential harms of AI.
“It is critical that the government look beyond a narrow subset of extreme risks and bring forward a credible vehicle and roadmap for addressing broader AI harms,” said Gaia Marcus of the Ada Lovelace Institute.
Similarly, Eden Zoller of Omdia argues that the government’s approach downplays the risks of AI.
[T]he UK government gives the impression that AI is a magic bullet that can fix the country’s struggling economy and turbo charge growth. AI can help but it is not a panacea.
Zoller also worries that the government’s emphasis on growing the AI sector “could be interpreted as shifting the regulatory lens away from responsible AI and a duty to protect people.”
Next steps
In his foreword to the government’s official response to the Action Plan, the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, highlights how AI can benefit everyone from doctors to teachers to small businesses. The government intends to implement all of Clifford’s recommendations with the details of their implementation being announced throughout 2025 and 2026.
For example, in February the British government unveiled an AI Playbook that helps government departments and public-sector organizations make effective use of AI. More recently, the government has also set up an AI Energy Council to ensure that the expansion of Britain’s compute is done in a sustainable manner.
A difficult but promising road
It will be challenging to fully implement the Action Plan. For starters, the government will need to secure both physical infrastructure and human capital, and it will need to work closely with industry to achieve its goals. They will also have to accept that success isn’t always guaranteed, and so there will always be some element of risk involved. While the government’s enthusiasm for the Action Plan bodes well for its implementation, warm words don’t always translate into concrete actions. And if the UK finds itself enmeshed in a trade war with the United States, the British government may find it difficult to come up with the funding necessary to make the Plan a reality.
About the author,
José Mauricio Duque
