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The UK will invest in a major expansion of government-owned AI computing capacity over five years, including building a new supercomputer, as it seeks to create a globally competitive artificial intelligence sector, ministers will announce. the moon.
The move is in response to a newly published report on the possibilities of AI for the UK economy, commissioned by the government and drawn up by British venture capitalist Matt Clifford.
The supercomputer will join two other advanced UK machines, including Isambard-AI at the University of Bristol, which contains around 5,000 graphics processing units (GPUs), specialized chips to build AI software, and Dawn in University of Cambridge.
Clifford’s report advocates achieving the equivalent of 100,000 GPUs in government capacity by 2030.
The new capacity, which would represent a 20-fold increase in the UK’s sovereign computing power, will be separate from privately owned AI data centers and will be deployed by the government primarily for AI applications in academia and public services.
It is unclear how much the project will cost, although it will come out of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s research and development budget.
The announcement comes after Clifford has been appointed as a part-time adviser to ministers on AI, helping to implement the recommendations in his report, according to two people briefed on the plan. Downing Street declined to comment on the proposals.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “Our plan will make Britain a world leader (in AI). It will give the industry the foundation it needs. . . This means more jobs and investment in the UK, more money in people’s pockets and transformed public services. This is the change this government is making.”
Starmer became more excited about the value of AI as an engine of economic growth and public sector reform after a private dinner with former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt and DeepMind chief Sir Demis Hassabis, the night before the global summit of investment in the UK in October, according to the people. informed about this matter.
Clifford’s report, known as the “UA Opportunities Action Plan”, was submitted to the government in September, but its publication has been plagued by delays. Several cabinet ministers met to discuss its content in December, according to people briefed on the discussions.
It sets out 50 recommendations to create a thriving national AI industry by improving the conditions to build, scale and adopt new technology.
Among the recommendations accepted by the government are: the creation of “AI growth zones”, areas of the UK with accelerated access to planning approvals to build AI infrastructure; and an AI Energy Council, to advise on energy resource requirements for AI, including nuclear power.
Technology experts, including Clifford, have argued that sovereign computing capacity is essential to ensure that British AI companies and researchers can become less dependent on AI businesses in other countries.
They argue that the capacity can create new AI technologies and companies that are globally relevant, and that having access to reliable computing power at a reasonable cost is essential as computing infrastructure becomes a geopolitical battleground.
Science and technology secretary Peter Kyle was criticized in August for scrapping funding for an £800m Exascale supercomputer program at Edinburgh University, a machine that can carry out complex scientific calculations such as physics simulations, in a move that gripped the sector technological and academic off guard.
Kyle has insisted he “hasn’t cut anything”, as the £800m promised by the previous government was not budgeted for.
In the absence of any significant new sovereign computing software, the UK’s most powerful computer has been overtaken by rivals, meaning the country no longer has a machine ranked in the global top 50.
Additional reporting by George Hammond in San Francisco
