The Prime Minister outlined the government’s plan to use more artificial intelligence in the UK today (January 13).

The AI Opportunities Action Plan, written by entrepreneur Matt Clifford, sets out aims to:

• forge new AI Growth Zones to speed up planning proposals and build more AI infrastructure. The first of these to be in Culham, Oxfordshire;

• increase the public compute capacity by twentyfold to give the UK the processing power needed to fully embrace the technology, with work starting on a brand new supercomputer;

• set up a new team to seize the opportunities of AI and build the UK’s sovereign capabilities;

• create a new National Data Library to safely and securely unlock the value of public data and support AI development;

• establish a dedicated AI Energy Council chaired by the Science and Energy Secretaries, working with energy companies to understand the energy demands and challenges which will fuel the technology’s development – this is to support the government’s mission to become a clean energy superpower by tapping into technologies like small modular reactors.

Three tech companies, Vantage Data Centres, Nscale and Kyndryl, have committed to £14 billion investment in the UK to build the AI infrastructure required for the technology, and deliver 13,250 jobs across the UK. 

Vantage Data Centres is working to build one of Europe’s largest data centre campuses in Wales and plans to invest over £12 billion in data centres across the UK – creating over 11,500 jobs.

Kyndryl, the world’s largest IT infrastructure services provider and a leading IT consultancy, has announced plans to create up to 1,000 AI-related jobs in Liverpool over the next three years.

Nscale, one of the UK’s leading AI companies, has announced a $2.5 billion investment to support the UK’s data centre infrastructure over the next three years, and have also signed a contract to build the largest UK sovereign AI data centre in Loughton, Essex by 2026.

Does AI make your life easier or harder?

We asked the public about their view of AI, with people sharing how they are currently using the technology.

One man in Bristol said: “I think we’re in danger of creating a monster that we can’t control. To quote the sort of Frankenstein side of things, I just don’t like it. I think we need to know what our limitations are and where our place is in the natural world and just accept that we’re part of it, we’re not in charge of it. If it just reduces the amount of work, I mean, on the face of it, it’s marvellous, isn’t it? But who’s going to pay for it? I have to say I’m not a fan. Not at the moment. But, you know, I’m here to be converted.”

In Manchester, one man said: “I think what I’ve seen the most is how AI is being used to create art, to create music, to almost supplement the creative industry.”

In Birmingham, one member of the public said: “I think it’s made it quite harder because I just finished uni, so when I did my dissertation, there was a lot of AI detectors, and they’re quite new, so they haven’t been tested properly, so a lot of people got flagged for AI when they didn’t use it.”

One man said: “It’s very well integrated into my life. Any question that I have, let it be about gym or cooking or studies, homework, whatever, I just go to ChatGPT, ask it a couple of questions, just as if you’re using Google, but even better, because it comes up with all these sources and answers, so I think it’s very helpful to me.”