UK pledges huge increase in computing capacity to build AI industry

Stay informed with free updates

Just sign up Artificial intelligence myFT Digest – delivered straight to your inbox.

The UK will invest in a massive expansion of government-owned AI computing capacity, including the construction of a new supercomputer, as it seeks to create a globally competitive artificial intelligence sector, ministers will announce on Monday.

The move is in response to a newly released report AI: opportunities for the UK economy commissioned by the government and developed by UK venture capitalists Matt Clifford.

The supercomputer will join two other advanced machines in the UK, including Isambard-AI at the University of Bristol, which contains around 5,000 graphics processing units (GPUs), specialized chips for building artificial intelligence software, and Cambridge University’s Dawn.

Clifford’s report suggests reaching 100,000 GPUs in government-owned capacity by 2030.

The new capacity, which will represent a 20-fold increase in the UK’s sovereign computing capacity, will be separate from privately owned AI data centers and will be deployed by the government mainly 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 of Science, Innovation and Technology’s research and development budget.

The announcement comes after Clifford was appointed on a part-time basis adviser to ministers on AI to help implement the recommendations in its 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. . That means more jobs and investment in the UK, more money in people’s pockets and transformed public services. That’s the change this Government is delivering.”

Starmer became more enthusiastic about the value of artificial intelligence as a driver of economic growth and public sector reform after a private dinner with former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and DeepMind chief Sir Demis Hassabis in the UK yesterday. global investment summit in October, according to people briefed on the matter.

Clifford’s report, known as the AI ​​Opportunities Action Plan, was presented to the government in September, but its publication has been delayed, with several cabinet ministers meeting in December to discuss its content, according to people briefed on the discussions.

It sets out 50 recommendations to create a thriving national AI industry by improving the conditions for building, scaling and adopting new technology.

Among the proposals adopted by the government are the creation of artificial intelligence ‘growth zones’, areas of the UK with accelerated access to planning approvals to build artificial intelligence infrastructure; and the Artificial Intelligence Energy Council to provide advice on AI energy resource requirements, including nuclear power.

Tech experts, including Clifford, argue that sovereign computing power is essential to ensure that British AI companies and researchers can become less dependent on AI businesses in other countries.

They argue that these capabilities can create new AI technology and companies that are globally relevant, and that access to reliable computing power at a reasonable cost is critical as computing infrastructure becomes a geopolitical battleground.

Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle was criticized in August for ending £800m of funding for the Exascale supercomputer program at the University of Edinburgh, a machine that can perform complex scientific calculations such as physics simulations, a move that has drawn technological and academic section: guard.

Kyle insisted he had “cut nothing” because the £800m promised by the previous government had not been budgeted.

In the absence of any significant new standalone computing applications, the UK’s most powerful computer has been overtaken by rivals, meaning the country no longer has a machine that ranks. world top 50.

Additional reporting by George Hammond in San Francisco