OpenAI rival planned by UK government in new AI strategy

13 Jan 2025

Image: © Shuo/Stock.adobe.com

The news comes as Vantage Data Centres, Nscale and Kyndryl have committed to investing £14bn into the UK to build AI infrastructure and create more than 13,000 jobs.

The UK government is seeking to rival OpenAI via its new artificial intelligence (AI) strategy. The plan includes initiatives aimed at making the UK the number one place for AI firms to invest in.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is due to visit Bristol in England later today (13 January) to announce the plan, which follows 50 recommendations made by British tech investor Matt Clifford in his ‘AI Opportunities Action Plan’. According to an official statement from the UK government, it will take onboard all recommendations set out by Clifford.

The announcement comes as three major tech companies – Vantage Data Centres, Nscale and Kyndryl – committed to a £14bn investment in the UK to build AI infrastructure, with the additional aim of delivering 13,250 jobs across the UK.

Data centres are key to developing large AI models. Last year, the UK designated data centres as critical national infrastructure, putting them on equal footing with vital services such as water, energy and emergency systems.

The strategy includes: forging new ‘AI Growth Zones’ to speed up planning proposals and build more AI infrastructure; increasing the public compute capacity “by twentyfold” to give the UK increased processing power; establishing a new team to identify and act on opportunities provided by AI; creating a new National Data Library; and establishing an AI Energy Council chaired by the Science and Energy Secretaries to better understand energy demands and challenges.

AI ‘will drive incredible change’

The government said that AI is already being used across the UK, particularly in the healthcare sector: “It is being used in hospitals up and down the country to deliver better, faster and smarter care: spotting pain levels for people who can’t speak, diagnosing breast cancer quicker and getting people discharged quicker.”

Furthermore, the government claimed that the UK could “learn from the US’s and EU’s approach”.

Expressing his hopes for the plan, Starmer asserted that AI “will drive incredible change” throughout the UK.

“From teachers personalising lessons, to supporting small businesses with their record-keeping, to speeding up planning applications, it has the potential to transform the lives of working people.”

He also maintained that the AI industry “needs a government that is on their side”.

“Our plan will make Britain the world leader. It will give the industry the foundation it needs and will turbocharge the Plan for Change.”

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Ciarán Mather was a journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com