Where The UK’s AI Strategy Goes Next

Will Keir Starmer listen to Tony Blair and Nick Clegg?

Jul 08, 2024

Turn to housing if you want a real clue as to where Britain goes next with its technology ambitions. The country faces a shortfall of at least 4.2 million properties, its infrastructure needs an upgrade and there is a serious skills shortage (250,000 people) in the construction industry.

Enter Labour. Keir Starmer’s new administration has promised to help boost economic growth by building again. To achieve this, the government plans to “unblock” stalled building sites and take on a series of other planning issues. As just one example, Starmer’s party has immediately reversed the ban on new onshore wind turbines.

But where does AI come into the picture? Labour promised to ensure that its industrial strategy supported the development of the sector in its general election manifesto.

The party also pledged to create a National Data Library to “bring together existing research programmes and help deliver data-driven public services, whilst maintaining strong safeguards and ensuring all of the public benefit”.

Other relevant AI policies included:

Supporting universities with spinouts; and work with industry to ensure start-ups have the access to finance they need to grow;
A simplification of the procurement process to support innovation and reduce micromanagement with a mission-driven approach;
The creation of a new Regulatory Innovation Office, bringing together existing functions across government;
Ensure the safe development and use of AI models by introducing binding regulation on the handful of companies developing the most powerful AI models and by banning the creation of sexually explicit deepfakes.

In many ways then Starmer, his Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Secretary of State for Science Peter Kyle and Deputy Prime Minister and Levelling-Up Secretary Angela Rayner will extend Rishi Sunak’s safety-focused approach to AI, positioning the UK as a global convenor on industry standards and testing.

But unlike the last government, there is a clear hope to boost entrepreneurialism through the university tie-ups (though much more could be done on this front), and promote the industrial side of the sector with more data centres built across the UK.

The upfront impact of these projects could be substantial. Meta’s own transparency data shows that the construction phase could see 2,000 people employed and then

Rayner has immediately put the plan into action by recovering two appealed planning applications for data centres in Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire. This sends all the right messages to the big technology companies which may want to build in Britain. Microsoft alone has previously committed £2.5 billion to AI infrastructure in the UK.

With a majority of more than 170 seats in the House of Commons, Labour shouldn’t face many problems passing legislation to turn these ambitions into reality. In fact, we may hear more about these pro-AI infrastructure plans when the King’s Speech is delivered on 17 July.

Then the monarch will read Starmer’s statement for government as he officially opens Parliament (in the nicest possible way, I do hope someone heckles Black Rod this year).

Away from Westminster, however, things get more tricky. Local authorities – both Labour and Conservative – could seek to stop new data centres and other infrastructure projects, while The Greens could also attack the energy and water usage of the sites.

I’ve written about the issue extensively here. For Labour it could become particularly embarrassing because it campaigned on a very pro-net-zero footing. The party will also be mindful of its share of the vote at the general election. The fact of the matter is that 80% of voters didn’t back Labour at the ballot box.

The Liberal Democrats, the old party of Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs at Meta, could also attempt to scupper the pro-data centre plan. The party now has 72 MPs (+64) after the election and it made serious headway in the South of England.

Though the Liberal Democrat manifesto promised to make the UK a “world leader in ethical, inclusive new technology, including artificial intelligence”, the party also pledged the establishment of national and local citizens’ assemblies to debate AI and climate change.

Finally, there are also serious questions to be asked about how much time and resource the new government wants to put into AI as a global ‘Sovereign AI’ race has kicked-off.

Reeves has already asked Treasury officials to investigate the spending of the last government (most of which is already outlined in the Budget literature and OBR forecasting).

Will the UK be willing to spend more on GPUs? The first phase of the Isambard-AI supercomputer has come online, but it doesn’t compare to some of the efforts in the US. Singapore, France and Japan are also making their own great strides in the Sovereign AI area, per NVIDIA’s latest results.

But on the more bullish side of the AI argument we do know that the Tony Blair Institute is very close to the Starmer project. And here’s what Blair said on the matter recently when he spoke to Dwarkish Patel:

“You’ve got to focus on this technology revolution. It’s not an afterthought – it’s the single biggest thing that’s happening in the world today of a real world nature that is going to change everything…This revolution is going to change everything about our society.”

🤔 Other things in tech and media I’ve found interesting

WH clashes with media. The Washington press core is increasingly taking an adversarial approach to President Biden’s White House, especially around the issues of his health following the CNN debate. On the other side, and to address his critics head-on, Biden is talking to the media much more via phone-ins and one-on-one interactions. I previously wrote on the US media’s lack of curiosity when it comes to the President and the Constitution here.

WaPo innovation. The Washington Post’s Editor Matt Murray has announced that Krissah Thompson will lead the outlet’s ‘third newsroom’, a unit at the outlet which will focus on news products and formats. The drama around Will Lewis seems like a century ago following the CNN debate.

WFH blues. There’s more evidence that large cities and workforces have fundamentally changed. The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan recently cut travel fairs on Fridays in a bid to encourage more people into the capital, but the plan is currently failing.

The Paramount merger. The Hollywood studio and streamer has agreed to merge with Skydance Media in a $28 billion deal.

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