The UK’s industrial approach to AI — what’s next?

AI has become an important industrial priority for countries across the world. The UK is no exception to this, with a succession of AI strategies published in recent years and significant investments made in AI skills, access to data, and compute. 

The new Government has published a green paper and consultation on its industrial strategy, which identifies ‘the rapid development of AI’ as a key opportunity for the UK. The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has just delivered the first Labour budget in 15 years, which reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to AI-related initiatives such as the proposed ‘National Data Library’ and announced a review of barriers to the adoption of transformative technologies, like AI, with a focus on the sectors identified in the industrial strategy green paper. In the coming weeks, we’re expecting the publication of an ‘AI Opportunities Action Plan’ and a new consultation on AI regulation. 

Taken together, do all these developments add up to a coherent industrial approach to AI? If so, what’s new and distinctive about this Government’s approach compared to its predecessor — and what’s next?  

Join the Ada Lovelace Institute and experts from the AI Now Institute, Cambridge University’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, and Common Wealth as we make sense of the current AI policy landscape and debate the way forward for the UK’s industrial approach to AI.