The Labour Government plans to ‘unleash’ AI and make the UK a ‘world leader’ by accepting £14 billion in private sector investment, and has revealed a 50 point plan that will see AI ‘mainlines into the veins’ of public services.
This includes a plan to ‘unlock’ public data by handing it over to ‘researchers and innovators’, including anonymized NHS data, which will be made available to train AI models. The government says there will be “strong privacy-preserving safeguards” and the data would never be owned by private companies.
Creating jobs
The plans will also look to free up time for public sector workers by allowing AI to undertake admin tasks, and will introduce ‘AI Growth Zones’ which will speed up AI infrastructure, rapidly building data centers and giving them better access to the energy grid – despite environmental concerns .
Private sector investment comes primarily from Vantage Data Centres, a firm which plans to invest £12 billion in data centre development, which will create over 11,500 jobs in the process. Also investing are Nscale and Kyndryl, two leading digital companies who plan to help roll out AI into Britain’s economy.
‘’The UK Government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan will play an important role in helping the UK to unlock the full potential of AI,” said Alison Kay, Vice President, UK and Ireland at Amazon Web Services
“By putting close industry collaboration and public-private partnership at the heart of the Government’s agenda, every citizen, community and business in every region of the UK will have the opportunity to realise the benefits of AI, and thrive and grow’’
A disruptive technology
The Prime Minister says that AI can ‘transform the lives of working people’, speeding up planning consultations, driving down admin, and feeding AI through road cameras to help spot potholes – although oddly, my car can spot potholes just fine.
Minister Pat McFadden said AI is a ‘test and learn’ technology, and, “mistakes will be made” with the applications, but wouldn’t confirm whether this plan will mean short-term job losses for workers. Addressing objections to the plan, the Minister warned if the UK doesn’t develop the technology here, then the country would ‘lose out’ to other nations in the AI race.
In the Prime Minister’s speech announcing the news, he acknowledged the anxieties surrounding AI , but affirmed the real danger is in falling behind other nations, noting, “the far bigger risk is we don’t go for it,” and miss out on ‘massive’ opportunities.
AI makes services more human
The Prime Minister also outlined the ways in which AI can help make our public services ‘more human’, primarily referring to healthcare and social work, in the speech. By taking administrative and mundane tasks away from public sector workers, services will be ‘more human’ by allowing staff to reconnect with patients and those under their care.
Starmer promised to “make sure this technology is safe” by building on the previous government’s ‘world-leading’ AI safety institute, promising to uphold and develop safeguarding measures to ensure AI is used safely.
“Change on this scale and at this speed can be worrying, especially when experts warn of the safety risks,”the Prime Minister said.
A push for productivity
Productivity in Britain has been somewhat stagnant for the last 15 years, but by using the full power of AI, the Prime Minister hopes to give the British economy the boost it so desperately needs.
That is, of course, if AI can increase efficiency for workers, rather than result in widespread unemployment.
Recent research suggests AI could displace up to 275,000 jobs per year at the peak of adoption. Politicians and tech leaders alike have long insisted AI will simply take over the mundane tasks from workers, rather than replace them, but as someone who has worked one of the many jobs entirely made up of ‘mundane’ tasks, I have to be skeptical.
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