The AI Opportunities Action Plan – announced last year (and on which we commented here) – has been published by the Government. Accompanying the publication is the Government’s Response, which wholeheartedly endorses the Plan’s recommendations, agreeing with 47 out of 50 (the other three were either partially agreed to, or already the subject of a consultation).

The Action Plan was announced to much fanfare by the Prime Minster last week, as he declared that AI is the “defining opportunity” for our generation. That sentiment is echoed in the Government Response which describes how – by employing the recommendations set out in the Action Plan – Britain will be an “AI superpower”.

The Action Plan itself sets out three goals for the Government to focus on. We consider each in turn below, but the Plan’s author – Matt Clifford CBE – also makes clear that running through each goal is set of ‘core principles’ for the Government to bear in mind. These include ensuring that the Government is “on the side of innovators” and “crowd[s] in capital and talent” so that the best talent is attracted to the UK to start and scale their companies. It also points to the need of Government to “invest in becoming a great customer” by using its purchasing power to shape new markets in AI, and to build on existing strengths such as in science and robotics.

Turning to the three goals of the Action Plan, they are as follows:

1. Lay the foundations to enable AI

The Action Plan recommends a range of measures that the Government should adopt in order to ensure “secure access to a sufficient supply of compute”. These include:

• Setting out a long-term plan for the UK’s infrastructure needs, backed by a 10-year investment commitment;
• Expanding the capacity of the AI Research Resource (“AIRR”) so that it “evolve[s] into a set of mission-oriented clusters that bring together compute, data, and talent to pursue frontier AI research and other national priorities”;
• Allocating sovereign compute (i.e. compute owned and/or allocated by the public sector) by appointing “mission focussed AIRR programme directors”; and
• Establishing AI Growth Zones to facilitate the accelerated build out of AI data centres.

The Action Plan also points to the importance of access to high-quality data, recommending that the Government seeks to “responsibly unlock both public and private data sets to enable innovation by UK startups and researchers and to attract international talent and capital”. It refers to the opportunities offered by the National Data Library (“NDL”) and recommends that, as the NDL develops, the Government should, among other things: identify at least 5 ‘high-impact’ public datasets to make available to AI researchers and innovators; develop and publish guidelines and best practice for releasing open government datasets which can be used for AI; and incentivise researchers and industry to curate and unlock private datasets.

A considerable number of recommendations are also made as to how the Government can train, attract, and retain “the next generation of AI scientists and founders”, as well as to how to ensure that AI development is “safe and trusted”. It recommends, for example, expanding education pathways into AI, funding regulators to scale up their AI capabilities, implementing pro-innovation initiatives like regulatory sandboxes, and requiring all regulators to produce annual reports on how they have “enabled innovation and growth driven by AI in their sector”.

2. Change lives by embracing AI

The Action Plan moves on to recommend that the Government takes steps to encourage AI adoption in both the public and private sectors, and that each sector should play a “mutually reinforcing role in AI adoption”. It argues for the adoption of a ‘Scan > Pilot > Scale’ approach which would see the Government investing in continually understanding the capabilities of AI before “rapidly developing prototypes or fast light-touch procurement to spin up pilots in high-impact areas” and then scaling successful pilots to different settings. Finally, in order to break down barriers to adoption, the Action Plan calls for the Government’s new Industrial Strategy to identify how AI adoption can be supported in key industries, as well as the adoption of ‘AI Sector Champions’ in industries such as life sciences, financial services, and the creative industries to work with Government to develop AI adoption plans.

3. Secure our future with homegrown AI

In order for the UK to be – as the Action Plan puts it – an “AI maker, not just an AI taker”, it argues that the Government needs to ensure that “research and development of frontier AI capabilities take place in the UK” and that the UK “maximises both its economic upside from and influence on these capabilities as they advance”.

To achieve this, the Action Plan proposes the creation of a new unit, called ‘UK Sovereign AI’. It states that public and private collaboration should be at the heart of this unit, supporting the private and academic sectors whilst also collaborating internationally, creating joint ventures, and spinning out AI companies.

To read the AI Opportunities Action Plan in full, click here. To read the Government’s Response, click here.