Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (): This Government is announcing thousands more jobs
and billions of pounds of inward investment, in a huge vote of
confidence in the UK.
We are committed to making the UK a world leading destination for
developing and deploying AI as part of our number one mission to
grow the UK economy. Our ambition is to harness the power of AI
to deliver for British people: creating great jobs and growth
right across the country, improving our public services, giving
people skills and putting money in people's pockets. We are
announcing a major package of new reforms and investment, putting
AI at heart of government's mission to drive growth, create jobs
and spread prosperity across the country. These plans will ensure
new international investment boosts jobs and growth – giving
British businesses the opportunity to scale and compete
internationally. International companies are also hosting new
bases in the UK and British companies are increasing investment –
with £24.25 billion in private investment committed in this last
month alone – a huge vote of confidence in the UK.
The Government is joining forces with companies like Vantage Data
Centres and Microsoft, to create another new AI Growth Zone in
South Wales – delivering more than 5,000 new jobs over the next
decade, and £10 billion of planned inward investment including
industrial heartlands like the former Ford Bridgend Engine Plant.
These Zones will help transform local economies and ensure no
community is left behind, with £5 million of UK Government
support committed to give local people skills required for new
high-quality jobs and ensure our children and young people have
the best possible future. This is the second AI Growth Zone
announced in Wales in as many weeks – with the UK Government and
Welsh Government working together for national economic renewal
and driving UK growth. This has the potential to be truly
transformative for communities across South Wales – meaning an
area that led the industrial revolution will now be leading the
technological revolution.
Alongside this, we are ensuring that British businesses and
researchers stay at the forefront of the AI revolution, backing
firms and scientists with the right tools to succeed and to seize
the opportunity for British workers and growth.
The Government will act as a “first customer” for promising UK AI
start-ups building high quality AI hardware products but who
currently struggle to get off the ground without investment. The
new “advance market commitment”, subject to due diligence, is
backed up by up to £100 million of government support to buy
their products for public supercomputers once they reach a
high-performance benchmark. This gives UK start-ups the
opportunity to secure a competitive edge and win customers in a
multibillion-dollar global market. AI Growth Zone data centres
will house billions of pounds of hardware. Our goal is to see
British chips deployed alongside established vendors.
Alongside this, venture capitalist James Wise will chair the
Sovereign AI Unit, backed by almost £500m in investment to help
build and scale AI capabilities on British shores. The unit will
bring together government, industry and investors, to become the
go-to fund for high potential start-ups and scale-ups in the
UK.
New AI Ambassadors will help maximise the benefits of AI for
Britain. Monzo Co-founder and Y Combinator General Partner Tom
Blomfield will champion British start-ups to scale up and attract
talent and investment. Nobel prize winning British MIT economist
and former Chief Economist of the IMF Simon Johnson will act as a
standard-bearer with public services and businesses to help them
take up this brilliant technology to boost productivity. And
Google DeepMind VP of Research Raia Hadsell will champion the
UK's place at the forefront of AI innovation and security.
The government will also offer more free compute to British
researchers and British start-ups by expanding access to the AI
Research Resource, a network of supercomputers, so that
researchers can train new AI models and deliver scientific
breakthroughs. We are launching a process to spend up to £250m on
compute.
We are also publishing the new AI for Science Strategy to make
sure AI supercharges scientific discovery like disease cure and
prevention, backed by up to £137 million in government support.
This will support British researchers and start-ups to drive new
innovations and discoveries, making sure the UK remains at the
forefront of scientific discovery. Its first mission will be
focused on harnessing AI to speed up the research of new drugs
and treatments - giving patients a new lease of life and fresh
hope that their conditions can be better managed.
Together, these announcements demonstrate a government determined
to harness the technologies of the future to deliver for our
people here in the UK —supporting regional and national economic
growth, great new jobs, and opportunity for communities across
the UK.
