Amid signs of economic stagnation, the UK is betting on artificial intelligence. On Monday, British Minister Keir Starmer announced a new . At the center of the initiative are “AI Growth Zones,” which the government plans to create in deindustrialized areas across the country.
In these areas, a Labor government will speed up the approval of data center plans and offer better access to the national energy grid. Starmer said the UK's first artificial intelligence growth zone would be created in Culham, Oxfordshire, home to the country's Atomic Energy Authority. New zones will be announced in the summer.
At the same time, Starmer's government plans to increase government-owned computing power by 20 times, starting with the “immediate” construction of a new supercomputer with “enough artificial intelligence power to play chess half a million times a second.” As of November 2024, there are 14 supercomputers in the UK. In this list it is significantly behind the United States and China.
The plan will also see the government create a National Data Library, which it says will make the country more attractive to investors by allowing private businesses to “safely and securely unlock the value of public data.” Finally, the new AI Energy Council will work with energy companies to meet the electricity needs of the AI industry in line with the government's Clean Energy Strategy.
“Artificial intelligence will lead to incredible changes in our country. From teachers personalizing lessons to supporting small businesses with record-keeping and speeding up planning applications, it could change the lives of working people,” Starmer said. “But the AI industry needs a government that is on their side, that won't sit back and miss opportunities. And in a world of fierce competition, we cannot stand aside.”
Starmer's government estimates his strategy could deliver £47 billion ($57 billion) in annual economic growth over the next 10 years. The announcement comes as the UK economy in the third quarter of last year. From this point of view, making the country more attractive to outside investment is not a bad idea, especially since companies like Microsoft are planning to spend new data centers this year.