A new UK government 'action plan' for increasing the use of artificial intelligence in public services was announced on Monday, with £14 billion of investment in digital infrastructure committed by three companies.
The aim is to ramp up the amount of AI computing power under public control 20-fold by 2030, said Prime Minister Kier Starmer.
Under the plan, AI will be "mainlined into the veins" of Britain to speed up planning consultations, drive down admin for teachers and help spot potholes, a Labour party statement overnight said.
The government revealed its 'AI Opportunities Action Plan' on Monday morning, with a statement from Starmer that said: "Artificial intelligence will drive incredible change in our country."
But he said "the AI industry needs a government that is on their side, one that won’t sit back and let opportunities slip through its fingers. And in a world of fierce competition, we cannot stand by. We must move fast and take action to win the global race."
In an op ed for the Mirror newspaper, Tech Secretary Peter Kyle pointed to research by the IMF that AI could boost productivity by as much as 1.5 percentage points per year, which he said would be worth an average of £47 billion to the UK every year over a decade.
He said the plan aimed to "put Britain front and centre of this revolution", adding that new 'AI Growth Zones', including the first of these in Oxfordshire, will "drive more jobs and investment at the heart of communities across the country, so our young people aren’t forced to leave town to get on".
Ramping up supercomputer capacity will give the UK "the processing power we need to deliver life-changing innovations to all parts of the economy", he said.
The government said three tech companies – Vantage Data Centres, Nscale and Kyndryl – have committed to £14 billion investment in the UK to build AI infrastructure, on top of £25 billion in AI investment announced at the International Investment Summit last year.
Most of that comes from US-based Vantage Data Centres, which plans to invest over £12 billion in data centres across the UK and is working to build one of Europe’s largest data centre campuses in Wales.
Some of the anticipated investment is subject to planning permission and agreed connection timelines.
UK AI 'hyperscaler' Nscale announced a $2.5 billion investment to support the UK’s data centre infrastructure over the next three years and have signed a contract to build the largest UK sovereign AI data centre in Loughton, Essex by 2026.
Nscale was only founded last year and has only raised $155 million so far, with a Series A funding round in December.