Government’s AI Action Plan is a first step towards turning economic stagnation into growth, says IPPR

Carsten Jung, head of AI at IPPR, said: 

“AI has the power to either disrupt our economy or drive its positive transformation. Our previous research found that AI could either lead to eight million job losses and no GDP gains, or no job losses and GDP gains worth up to £306bn a year. The government has today made it clear that it's understood this potential and the need to steer AI towards to a positive scenario. 

“The government has fired the starting gun on giving AI deployment more strategic direction. Next to productivity, AI should also help solve big social challenges such as poor health and the energy transition. Rather than a scattergun approach, AI should be laser focussed on delivering the government's missions. This will require big changes to the way tech policy is run.” 

“Today's announcement to invest big in public and private AI infrastructure will be crucial to achieve this. Running public AI on public computers will also be key to ensure citizens' trust in the technology. Similarly, investing in our regulators so they're equipped to regulate AI properly will need to go hand in hand with this.”