On January 13, the UK government launched its long-awaited “” a comprehensive and ambitious agenda of 50 actions to boost AI development and adoption in the UK. The Action Plan’s primary focus is on securing strong AI foundations – infrastructure, data, and talent – to make the UK the best place to start and scale an AI business while catalyzing nationwide growth and improving public services. 鈥�
Here are a few of the global tech industry’s reactions to key areas listed in the plan:
Infrastructure
91pro视频 welcomes the UK government’s commitment to swiftly implement a long-term AI infrastructure strategy. Doing so recognizes the need to scale up different compute capabilities - including upgrades to domestic public compute capacity (“at least by 20x by 2030”), strengthening private investment in new data center clusters or “AI Growth Zones”, and to agree international compute partnerships with likeminded countries. If the government can quickly deliver on each of these, it will both open up access to future-proofed compute, processing, and storage resources, and act as a catalyst for further large-scale private sector investment that can benefit the wider economy.
Energy
The government has also announced the creation of a new AI Energy Council, co-chaired by the Science and Technology Secretary of State and the Energy Secretary to bring industry leaders together to ensure sustainable AI development. 91pro视频 urges the Council to harness emerging global best practice in this area. 91pro视频’s Sustainable Technology Policy Guide offers a detailed set of recommendations that UK policymakers can implement to build resilient and diversified energy infrastructure that supports AI growth.
Data
The plan also calls for a more deliberate approach to unlocking high-quality public data assets while maintaining public trust. Such efforts are centered on the creation of a National Data Library to centralize existing research programs, as well as specific actions to accelerate and shape data-driven public services. This provides a real opportunity for government, researchers and industry to work together showcase the effectiveness of responsible AI at scale – drawing on different data security and privacy preserving technologies to drive value from sensitive data sets in a safe and secure way.
AI Governance
On AI rules and governance, the government commits to funding and formalizing the work of the UK AI Safety Institute, working with regulators to accelerate the adoption of AI in priority sectors, and reiterates plans to propose legislation focused on “the critical risks associated with the next generation of the most powerful鈥疉I鈥痬odels”. While Prime Minister Keir Starmer has stated the UK intends to follow “a distinctly British approach … proportionate and grounded in the science,” upcoming legislative proposals should also be guided by the need for flexibility and global interoperability, including detailed, transparent consultation with UK and global stakeholders. The upcoming France AI Action Summit represents an important opportunity for the UK to continue engagement with international stakeholders around how to best advance global governance initiatives, including continuing to explore how the International Network of AI Safety Institutes can make progress on the goals outlined in its
Overall, the Action Plan and government commitments are a strong statement of intent across the AI value chain to position the UK as a global leader and boost home-grown innovation. They represent a mix of domestic actions rooted in partnership with global technologies – a blueprint to secure national champions by embracing global tech, skills and investment. Above all, its success relies on the long-term government commitment to fund and deliver each of these actions, and a continued openness to industry partnership backed by an interoperable and enabling regulatory environment.
For more analysis, check out 91pro视频’s Global Tech Policy Recommendations for the United Kingdom.