Britain doesn’t need to walk a US or EU path on AI

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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The writer is UK prime minister

Artificial intelligence is the defining opportunity of our generation. It’s not a technology that is coming. It is already here, materially changing lives. It’s preventing illness in our NHS. It’s creating exciting new companies in our economy. It’s pushing the boundaries of scientific discovery in our universities. And it is turbocharging this government’s plan to transform the country.

Take waiting times in the NHS. We will use AI to cut them by filling appointments patients can no longer make and quickly rescheduling. Or take your children’s schooling. We will expand opportunities for teachers to use AI to personalise lessons specifically to your child’s needs. The possibilities are endless. AI can support small businesses with their record-keeping. It can spot potholes more quickly. It can help speed up planning applications to get Britain building again. On and on it goes. In the years ahead, barely any aspect of our society will remain untouched. 

Britain should be excited by this. For one, it offers credible hope of a long-desired boost in public sector productivity. Nurses, social workers, teachers, police officers — for millions of frontline workers, AI can give the precious gift of time. This means they can refocus on the care and connection aspects of their job that so often get buried beneath the bureaucracy. That’s the wonderful irony of AI in the public sector. It provides an opportunity to make services feel more human.

Equally, as the third largest AI market in the world, Britain is well-placed to take advantage of the growth opportunities. Numerous blue-chip AI companies already call Britain home. Our universities are packed to the rafters with scientific talent. We have a thriving tech ecosystem with some of the best entrepreneurs on the planet. Our AI safety infrastructure is genuinely world leading. And our values of democracy, open commerce and the rule of law are well-suited to this test. Our values are absolutely critical for the free exchange of ideas needed to truly maximise AI’s potential.

Nonetheless, we cannot sit back complacently and wait for the competition to catch up. The global race for AI leadership is fast and getting faster. Some countries are going to make AI breakthroughs and export them to the world. Others will be left to buy those breakthroughs and import them. I don’t believe government should be passive or neutral on this — this is the bread and butter of industrial policy. AI is the greatest force for change in the world right now. I am determined to harness it to usher in a golden age of public service reform. And I am determined the UK will become the best place to start and scale an AI business. I know growth in this area cannot be state-led. But it is absolutely the job of government to make sure the right conditions are in place.

That’s why, within days of our election, I commissioned venture capitalist Matt Clifford to develop a plan for harnessing AI’s boundless potential. Today, we launch that plan and take forward the results.

We will create new AI growth zones and breathe fresh life into former industrial sites across the country. We will increase public sector compute — the engine of AI power — by a factor of at least 20. We will establish a gold standard data access regime, with a National Data Library, a clear and trusted copyright regime, and a new determination to unlock the innovation potential of NHS data. And we will bulldoze through the ludicrous blockages in our planning system that stop billions from being invested in the data centres and grid connectors that AI depends upon.

Make no mistake — these reforms are already beginning to bear fruit. On Monday alone, Vantage Data Centers confirmed it will invest more than £12bn in new data centres across the country, including building one of Europe’s largest data centre in Wales. That should create 11,500 jobs in AI and construction. And it’s a sign of things to come.

Because Britain shouldn’t just be excited about AI — it should be confident. We don’t need to walk down a US or an EU path on AI regulation — we can go our own way, taking a distinctively British approach that will test AI long before we regulate, so that everything we do will be proportionate and grounded in the science. And alongside that, an offer to investors of stability, pragmatism and the good sense they would expect from democratic British values.

Put simply, that’s our message to anyone working at the AI frontier: take a look at Britain. Our ambition is to be the best state partner for you anywhere in the world. We can see the future, we are running towards it and we back our builders. Because we know that AI has arrived as the ultimate force for change and national renewal.