The UK’s AI boom could be hampered by a lack of data infrastructure, the Open Data Institute (ODI) has warned in a report.

The non-profit research body, which was founded by internet creator Tim Berners-Lee, argues that AI technologies have significant potential to transform numerous industries including diagnostics and personalised education.

But it predicted the potential gains could be impeded by “significant weaknesses” in the UK’s tech infrastructure and urged the government to take a number of actions to remedy the situation.

This includes broader access to high-quality data from both the public and private sector; greater enforcement of data protection and labour rights in the data supply chain; updates to intellectual property laws to ensure AI models are being trained in a fair way; and increased transparency around the data used to train high-risk AI models.

The UK is currently one of the world leaders in AI technologies, with a market valued at $21bn. While not as large in scale as China or the US, the UK is generally considered the third largest market for development of the technology. 

The government launched the £1bn AI Sector Deal in 2018 that aimed to build the skills needed by the industry as well as promoting adoption across different sectors.

In the case of generative AI, the ODI white paper finds a lack of robust governance frameworks over the sector’s reliance on a handful of machine learning datasets. It also said the rising price of high-quality AI training data excludes potential innovators like small businesses and academia.

“This poses significant risks to both adoption and deployment, as inadequate data governance can lead to biases and unethical practices, undermining the trust and reliability of AI applications in critical areas such as healthcare, finance, and public services,” the body said. 

It found that there is also a lack of transparency that is hampering efforts to address biases and remove harmful content. 

“If the UK is to benefit from the extraordinary opportunities presented by AI, the government must look beyond the hype and attend to the fundamentals of a robust data ecosystem built on sound governance and ethical foundations,” said Sir Nigel Shadbolt, co-founder of the ODI. 

“The UK has the opportunity to build better data governance systems for AI that ensure we are best placed to take advantage of technological innovations and create economic and social value whilst guarding against potential risks.”