Keir Starmer, whose new government is under pressure on the economic front (bond markets are rebelling and Chancellor Rachel Reeves has come under more criticism) has broken cover on the U.K.’s AI strategy with an op-ed in the Financial Times, and public commentary. Some elements are a restatement of election manifesto promises, notably the creation of a national data library and the deployment of AI in the National Health Service, which will be difficult.
Starmer’s launch, together with interventions from Tech Secretary Peter Kyle, is a plea for AI investment in the U.K., and in that respect it is a continuation of the approach of the Tories. Notably, Starmer continues to work with Matt Clifford, the venture capitalist who worked on the U.K. AI Safety conference (note Sir Demis Hassabis of DeepMind is also involved). Clifford has produced an AI Action Plan, which was announced at the same time as several AI related investments in Britain. Clifford will be the prime AI adviser to the government — he is very credible in the venture community in the U.K.
Of note in the action plan is the aim to build more data centers and to ensure that these have access to energy, and there will be an AI Energy Council. In addition, the government is looking for a private sector partner to help build data centers (the process starts in the spring). Feedback from operators in the U.K. VC space suggest that there has not been enough emphasis on funding for innovation in the AI sector.
There has not yet been an announcement on a consultation process on regulating AI – Starmer has made some business-friendly comments here ‘we test and understand it before regulating it.’ One area where Starmer has not focused is the ways in which AI might lead to job cuts and role changes – this is a very sensitive topic for unions, who have written papers on the issue.
The Labour announcement is not new in detail (relative to the manifesto), though it should be welcome for the AI sector in terms of the fact that there is no immediate attempt to regulate AI, the undertaking on energy, data centres and AI infrastructure, and the authorship of the AI strategy by practitioners. Compared to the European initiative it is a positive, though the sense is that some of the applications (i.e. the use of AI in government) are very ambitious.
The AI announcement comes at a vital time for the U.K. economy – growth and productivity are slow, the impression in London is that the government has run out of ideas on the economy and the trip by Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been criticized as a ‘cap in hand’ mission that demonstrates the weakness of Britain internationally. The issue with the AI initiative is that it will take some time to execute and to impact the broad U.K. economy. What is perhaps missing is a plan for the government to work with large infrastructure investors to help them build out the new, technology led investment that Britain needs.
