Keir Starmer today sets out his vision for the future of AI – saying it can both boost economic growth and make the state more efficient.
As part of the announcement, the Government has pledged to increase the UK’s computer capacity 20-fold by 2030, including by building a new supercomputer.
The Government has also announced that tech companies had committed a total of £14 billion of investment in AI infrastructure in the UK, expected to create 13,250 jobs, including a £12bn commitment from a firm building a massive data centre in Wales and $2.5bn pledge from Nscale which includes a contract for a groundbreaking sovereign data centre in Essex.
However, the location of a new supercomputer to help power Labour’s AI ambitions is yet to be confirmed, prompting concerns that the party may be “undermining” Scotland’s tech sector.
Starmer (above) pulled the plug on plans to build an exascale supercomputer at Edinburgh University soon after coming to power.
Labour claimed the Tories had spun a fantasy by pledging non-existent cash for the project – saying this and other funding promises amounted to a £22bn “black hole” in the UK’s finances.
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SNP MSP David Torrance (below) told The National: “Just a few months after coming into office and promising to deliver growth, the UK Labour Government has pulled the plug from the ground-breaking £800m supercomputer project at Edinburgh University, undermining Scotland’s world-leading data, AI and tech sector.
“Deciding now to develop this technology elsewhere would be another betrayal from this UK Labour government towards Scotland.”
He added that increased taxes on businesses and the soaring cost of government borrowing – which had sparked cuts fears – showed that “every decision Labour makes undermines the economy and our priority of achieving economic growth”.
A UK Government spokesperson said: “This is completely untrue. We paused delivery of the Exascale computer announced under the former government because it had not been fully funded.
“Our AI Opportunities Action Plan commits to a fully funded extension of ARCHER2 in Edinburgh, the UK’s leading high performance compute resource.
“It also commits to increasing the UK’s AI compute ambition by bolstering its capacity 20 fold by 2030, bringing forward a long-term and fully sustainable plan for compute that considers the full spectrum of scientific needs.”