Artificial intelligence will be “mainlined into the veins” of the nation, ministers have announced, with a multibillion-pound investment in the UK’s computing capacity despite widespread public fear about the technology’s effects.
Keir Starmer will launch a sweeping action plan to increase 20-fold the amount of AI computing power under public control by 2030 and deploy AI for everything from spotting potholes to freeing up teachers to teach.
Labour’s plan to “unleash” AI includes a personal pledge from the prime minister to make Britain “the world leader” in a sector that has been transformed by a series of significant breakthroughs in the last three years. The government plan includes a potentially controversial scheme to unlock public data to help fuel the growth of AI businesses.
Ministers believe AI can help tackle Britain’s anaemic economic growth and deliver, according to its own forecasts, an economic boost rising to up to £470bn over the next decade.
The action plan represents a shift in tone from the UK government which had previously been focused on tackling the most serious “frontier” risks from AI, relating to dangers involving cybersecurity, disinformation and bioweapons.
Technology companies including Microsoft, Anthropic and OpenAI welcomed the plan as Starmer said the “AI industry needs a government that is on their side”. Regulators will be told to “actively support innovation” setting up a potential clash with people who believe regulators’ primary role should be to protect the public from harm.
But experts in AI’s effects on society, jobs and the environment urged caution. The three words most associated with AI by the public are “robot”, “scary” and “worried”, according to government research last month.
The prime minister is also aiming to accelerate investment in new miniature nuclear reactors as it seeks to power the energy-hungry technology.
Susie Alegre, a barrister specialising in technology and human rights, cited the Post Office scandal “as a reminder of the dangers of putting too much faith in technology without the resources for effective accountability”.
She said: “Any plan for Britain’s future with AI needs to look at real world consequences for people and the planet and cannot afford to look away from uncomfortable truths.”
Starmer has instructed every member of his cabinet to make AI adoption a top priority and said: “Artificial intelligence will drive incredible change in our country. From teachers personalising lessons, to supporting small businesses with their record-keeping, to speeding up planning applications, it has the potential to transform the lives of working people. But the AI industry needs a government that is on their side, one that won’t sit back and let opportunities slip through its fingers. In a world of fierce competition, we cannot stand by. We must move fast and take action to win the global race.”
The US currently leads the world in AI, ahead of China which is well ahead of the UK in third place, according to rankings from Stanford University.
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Meta, last week caused controversy by loosening guidelines on social media hate speech. On Sunday Peter Kyle, the secretary of state for science, technology and innovation, insisted any “illegal content will be taken down” in the UK. But campaigners such as the Molly Rose Foundation, named after Molly Russell, who killed herself after viewing harmful content online, called for tougher UK legislation to prevent preventable harm.
Under the 50-point AI action plan an area of Oxfordshire near the headquarters of the UK Atomic Energy Authority at Culham will be designated the first AI growth zone. It will have fast-tracked planning arrangements for data centres as the government seeks to reposition Britain as a place where AI innovators believe they can build trillion-pound companies. Further zones will be created in as-yet-unnamed “de-industrialised areas of the country with access to power”.
Multibillion-pound contracts will be signed to build the new public “compute” capacity – the microchips, processing units, memory and cabling that physically enable AI. There will also be a new “supercomputer”, which the government boasts will have sufficient AI power to play itself at chess half a million times a second.
Sounding a note of caution, the Ada Lovelace Institute called for “a roadmap for addressing broader AI harms”, and stressed that piloting AI in the public sector “will have real-world impacts on people”.
Gaia Marcus, director of the research institute, said it wanted to know how Whitehall would “implement these systems safely as they move at pace” to maintain public trust.
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The government confirmed an initiative to gather data held by the public sector in a new National Data Library to “support AI research and innovation”. It did not specify what data would be made available to private companies, but said it would be done “responsibly, securely and ethically”.
Kyle commissioned the British tech investor Matt Clifford to draw up the AI opportunities action plan nearly six months ago. At the time the government cited the possibility of 1.5% a year productivity gain for the economy if AI can increase efficiencies for workers. But there are also fears that it could lead to widespread unemployment, particularly in professional occupations associated with more clerical work and across finance, law and business management roles.
The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, and the science and technology secretary, Peter Kyle, will lead a new AI energy council to accelerate investment in energy sources including renewables and small modular nuclear reactors, which are being pioneered to fuel energy-hungry AI systems. Worldwide, campaigners have raised safety fears about the technology and there are concerns that they could generate greater quantities of radioactive waste.
The overall computing capacity boost will cost taxpayers billions of pounds over the next five years, the Guardian understands. More details of funding are expected in the 2025 spending review. The investment is separate to £14bn announced by private companies to build vast data centres in places like Loughton in Essex and on the site of a former car engine plant in south Wales.
The news comes after reports that Rachel Reeves was considering steep cuts to public services to help repair the government’s finances. The chancellor has told colleagues in the cabinet to be “ruthless” in finding areas for savings, according to the Daily Telegraph.
Alan Mak, the shadow secretary of state for science, innovation and technology, said: “Labour’s plan will not support the UK to become a tech and science superpower. They’re delivering analogue government in a digital age.
“Shaping a successful AI future requires investment, but in the six months leading up to this plan, Labour cut £1.3bn in funding for Britain’s first next-generation supercomputer and AI research while imposing a national insurance jobs tax that will cost business in the digital sector £1.66bn.
“AI does have the potential to transform public services, but Labour’s economic mismanagement and uninspiring plan will mean Britain is left behind.”
The push to increase the UK’s public AI hardware capacity comes as experts believe that access to cloud compute could become as important for the UK’s economy, society and security as access to the internet, electricity or oil and gas.
“Losing access to reliable computers could be catastrophic, akin to the impact losing national broadband or electrical infrastructures would have today,” a report by the Demos and UK Day One thinktanks has said. “It is a matter of economic and national security”, the report said.
A handful of companies provide the majority of global cloud compute, increasing the impetus to build “sovereign” capacity controlled by the state.
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