Since publishing our initial consultation draft of Forging the UK's AI Future, we have received an incredible response from academic experts and industry leaders in the development and deployment of AI technologies across the UK. We are now excited to release our updated draft and offer a final opportunity to have your voice heard in our recommendations before the final version is published.
Read a summary of our vision and final conclusions below:
An AI Vision for the UK
1. REGULATION AS AN EXPORT – UK AI frameworks to become the model other nations build their own regulatory strategies on
2. SOVEREIGN AI CHAMPIONS – A cohort of major AI technology firms that scale within the UK, rather than abroad
3. DOMINANCE OF THE HYBRID LAYER – Control of the interfaces between foundation models and domain technologies
4. WORLD LEADING PREVENTATIVE HEALTHCARE – UK as one of the best countries in the world in delivering preventative healthcare
5. GRID CONSTRAINT COSTS REVERSED – Grid capacity and management to catch up with the required supply and demand
6. TRUSTED MEDIA ENVIRONMENT – British media environment and institutions to recover their position as leading authorities in reliability and verification
7. EUROPE’S CYBER SECURITY HUB – UK as the default supplier of cyber security products and services to NATO allies
Conclusion
Overall, the UK is well positioned to take a leading role in the future global AI economy. It has a well-developedinfrastructure, a highly trained workforce and an excellent investment environment for new innovation. It is, however, still at risk of missing out on the depth of potential it holds if it fails to develop leverage against the interests of other international players.
First of all, the government’s talk of sovereignty needs to move beyond soundbites. There is some progress in this area in supporting UK companies, but it needs to be demonstrated across all of government. This may result in trade-offs of accepting lower international investment from leading markets like the USA and gambling on more unseasoned local firms when awarding contracts. The RDS has proposed a framework for defining sovereignty and the different aspects of it including expertise, ownership and economic benefits. Adopting a suitable system will be a necessity to determine which trade-offs to accept and which to push back against.
Pursuing this objective in an orderly manner will further require a much clearer picture of how the government imagines its future vision for the UK with regards to AI. In this report the RDS has provided an ambitious and comprehensive vision that accounts for the pervasiveness of AI technologies as well as the breadth of potential the UK holds across multiple market sectors. Achieving this will require consideration of the shape of the future UK technology market, labour force and information environment at a minimum. While a “principles-based” approach to regulation can work, the defined principles need to contain the clarity for regulators to make decisions with the confidence that they are backed by the public, or they will risk rejection at a later date.
Finally, integrating these new capabilities into government will require more resources to be directed towards building digital infrastructure. While relying on private sector firms can provide cost-effective short-term solutions, they often fail to fully deliver the required capabilities and remove the potential for the state to develop much needed capacity in-house.
Designing a strategy for any form of industrial revolution is inevitably steeped in unknowns that reveal pitfalls for every opportunity. The UK has shown promise with its willingness to be a first-mover amongst the competition but until it can develop some much-needed focus, its future with regards to AI will remain a gamble.
This report will form the backbone of the Research and Development Society’s (RDS) programme on Forging the UK’s AI Future programme. As we progress with consultations with industrial, academic and civil society experts this report will be revised and expanded, incorporating insight from across the country into a complete platform to pursue the UK’s AI strategy.
Please send any comments, corrections and suggested additions to the RDS’ Chief Operating Officer, Jamie Phadke at jamie.phadke@rdsoc.org or one of our contributing directors.