UK technology secretary Peter Kyle will pitch the country as a “global hub for AI investment” when he pitches up at NVIDIA's GTC jamboree this week.
The Labour politician, whose own use of ChatGPT was detailed in a freedom of information request recently, will highlight how the UK and US can “evolve their special relationship in the age of AI as the UK government puts the technology at the heart of its plans for change.
According to a briefing document from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Kyle will meet with key companies including Open AI, Anthropic, Nvidia, and Vantage, attempting to persuade them to “set up shop in the UK as their Silicon Valley home from home.”
And he will tell the audience at GTC say something like: “In empty factories and abandoned mines, in derelict sites and unused power supplies, I see the places where we can begin to build a new economic model.”
That model will be rewired around the “immense power of artificial intelligence” he will add, and “Faced with that power, the state is neither a blocker nor a shirker - but an agile, proactive partner.”
The relics of past economic eras will be transformed “into AI Growth Zones.” [Though exactly how you convert a factory or mine into the sort of pristine, dust-free environment you need for an AI factory isn’t clear.]
But that will depend on investment. And with the UK’s finances looking parlous, there’s not much of that to go round. So Kyle will be looking to position Britain as “the second leading AI nation in the democratic world, with a wealth of investment opportunities now being opened to US companies and financial backers alike.”
These Growth Zones will “have access to large power connections, and a planning system designed to cut the time it takes to start up construction, will help to build a compute infrastructure which the UK ‘has never seen before’.”
And, he promised, local leaders and industry had deluged the government with proposals, “underscoring Britain’s readiness to leverage artificial intelligence to rejuvenate communities and drive economic growth across the country. “
This will presumably be in the “Sovereign AI Summit” on Day 3 of the conference proper. Though Kyle does get a whole 20 minutes to himself. The Danish, Indian and Japanese reps will be shouting over each other on a Sovereign AI panel.
British politicians and even Royals have been despatched to Silicon Valley for years to woo US companies and capital, with some success. Last week Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp reportedly talked up London’s talent pool, while Vantage committed to invest $12bn in datacentres in the UK. The government also recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Anthropic.
However, UK Research and Innovation’s AI champion, Charlotte Deane, told the Turing Institute’s AI UK conference this week that the country should stop obsessing over the big AI players and focus on building a skilled workforce and sustainable technology.
“We’re not that big, we’re not going to win that race,” she said. “So we should think about the things where we can make a real difference and do those.”
