UK wants to be global giant in AI technology

The United Kingdom wants to compete with the United States and China as a global leader in artificial intelligence, or AI, and plans to use it to increase efficiency in all walks of life and create more than 13,000 jobs, the country's prime minister has said.

With critics claiming the government merely wants to use AI to cut repetitive jobs, Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted on Monday as he unveiled the AI Opportunities Action Plan that the technology "has the potential to transform the lives of working people" in a positive way.

"Our plan will make Britain the world leader," he said, adding that the UK should be able to develop technology enterprises as large and successful as US giants Apple and Google.

"At the moment, we don't have any frontier conceptual, cutting-edge companies that are British-owned," Starmer said. "We have DeepMind, which started in Britain but is now American-owned. Now, we want to keep all of those ingredients that enable that kind of scale of innovation and investment to exist in Britain."

Peter Kyle, the UK's minister for science, innovation, and technology, told the BBC the plan will ensure AI boosts growth and enables the government to deliver public services efficiently.

"I want to make sure that it benefits everyone from every background, that it benefits every community, from every part of the UK," he said.

The plan, which was written by venture capitalist and AI adviser Matt Clifford and has been backed by big technology companies with commitments of 14 billion pounds ($17 billion) of additional spending, has 50 recommendations, including the establishment of growth zones where AI companies will be concentrated.

It also calls for the UK government to invest in a new supercomputer to give the country 20 times more computing capacity by 2030 than it has today, and it says the government must use the National Data Library to safely store public data. The plan also calls for more technology courses and for the nation to establish an AI Energy Council, to ensure technology companies have enough electricity to power their endeavors.

The government believes the plan will grow the nation's economy and increase productivity by 1.5 percent a year, which it says will be worth an extra 47 billion pounds annually for the next decade.

The government said the 14 billion pounds committed by technology companies is in addition to the 25 billion pounds of AI investment announced last year at the UK's International Investment Summit.

The UK's aspiration to become an AI leader is, however, not new. Starmer's predecessor, Rishi Sunak, also called for the country to become an "AI superpower".

Alan Mak, Conservative Party's spokesperson on science issues, said Starmer is "delivering analogue government in a digital age" because his plan falls short of what is needed.