- The UK government has unveiled a 50-point plan to inject AI into the public sector
- Plan comes with £14bn private sector investment
- PM responds to security concerns, but doesn’t want UK to ‘fall behind’
The UK government has outlined plans to introduce AI to all sectors of UK industry through a multi-billion pound investment.
The Labor government plans to ‘unleash’ AI and make the UK a ‘world leader’ by accepting £14bn of private sector investment, and has revealed a 50-point plan which will see AI “enter the veins” of public services.
This includes a plan to “unlock” public data by handing it over to “researchers and innovators”, including anonymised NHS data, which will be made available to train AI models. The government says there will be “strong privacy safeguards” and that data will never belong to private companies.
Create jobs
The plans will also seek to free up time for public sector workers by enabling AI to undertake administrative tasks, and introduce “AI growth zones” which will accelerate AI infrastructure, by quickly building data centers and giving them better access to the energy grid. despite environmental concerns.
Private sector investment comes mainly from Vantage Data Centres, a company which plans to invest £12 billion in data center development, which will create more than 11,500 jobs. Also investing are Nscale and Kyndryl, two large digital companies that plan to help deploy AI in the UK economy.
“The UK Government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan will play an important role in helping the UK unlock the full potential of AI,” said Alison Kay, Vice President for UK and Ireland at Amazon Web Services.
“By putting close industrial collaboration and public-private partnership at the heart of the Government’s agenda, every citizen, community and business in every part of the UK will have the opportunity to reap the benefits of AI, thrive and grow. develop. »
A disruptive technology
Prime Minister says AI can ‘transform workers’ lives’, speeding up planning consultations, reducing admin tasks and powering AI through road cameras to help spot potholes – although, oddly enough, my car can spot potholes very well.
Minister Pat McFadden said AI is a “test and learn” technology and “mistakes will be made” with the applications, but he would not confirm whether the plan would lead to job losses at short term for workers. Responding to objections to the project, the minister warned that if the UK did not develop the technology here, then the country would “lose out” to other countries in the AI race.
In the prime minister’s speech announcing the news, he acknowledged concerns about AI but said the real danger lies in falling behind other countries, noting that “the much greater risk is that we are not going there” and that we are missing the opportunity. huge opportunities.
AI makes services more human
In his speech, the Prime Minister also highlighted how AI can help make our public services “more human”, primarily referring to healthcare and social work. By removing administrative and mundane tasks from public sector workers, services will be “more human” by allowing staff to reconnect with patients and those they care for.
Starmer promised to “ensure this technology is safe” by building on the previous government’s “leading” AI Safety Institute, promising to maintain and develop safeguards to ensure that AI is used safely.
“A change of this magnitude and speed can be worrying, especially when experts warn of security risks,” the prime minister said.
An effort for productivity
Productivity in Britain has stagnated somewhat over the past 15 years, but by using the full power of AI, the Prime Minister hopes to give the British economy the boost it desperately needs.
This is, of course, if AI can increase worker efficiency, rather than leading to widespread unemployment.
Recent research suggests that AI could eliminate up to 275,000 jobs per year at the peak of its adoption. Politicians and tech leaders have long insisted that AI would simply take over workers’ mundane tasks, rather than replace them, but as someone who has held one of the many jobs consisting entirely of “mundane” tasks, I must be skeptical.
