By cryptoadmin 
Amid indicators of a stagnating financial system, the UK goes all-in on AI. On Monday, British Minister Keir Starmer introduced a brand new AI Alternatives Motion Plan. On the middle of the initiative are “AI Progress Zones,” which the federal government plans to determine in de-industrialized areas all through the nation.
In these areas, the Labour authorities will fast-track planning approvals for knowledge facilities and provide higher entry to the nationwide vitality grid. Starmer mentioned the UK’s first AI Progress Zone can be established in Culham, Oxfordshire, residence to the nation’s Atomic Power Authority. Extra zones shall be introduced in the summertime.
On the identical time, Starmer’s authorities plans to extend state-owned compute capability by an element of 20, beginning with the “rapid” development of a brand new supercomputer with “sufficient AI energy to play itself at chess half 1,000,000 occasions a second.” As of November 2024, the UK has 14 supercomputers on the TOP500 listing, placing it behind — by a big margin — the US and China.
Moreover, the plan will see the federal government set up a Nationwide Knowledge Library, which it says will make the nation extra enticing to traders by permitting personal business to “safely and securely unlock the worth of public knowledge.” Lastly, a brand new AI Power Council will work with vitality corporations to fulfill the facility calls for of the AI business in a manner that’s in step with the federal government’s clear vitality technique.
“Synthetic Intelligence will drive unimaginable change in our nation. From lecturers personalising classes, to supporting small companies with their record-keeping, to rushing up planning functions, it has the potential to rework the lives of working folks,” Starmer mentioned. “However the AI business wants a authorities that’s on their aspect, one which received’t sit again and let alternatives slip by way of its fingers. And in a world of fierce competitors, we can not stand by.”
Over the following 10 years, Starmer’s authorities estimates that its technique might generate as a lot as £47 billion ($57 billion) in annual financial progress. The announcement comes after the UK financial system did not develop within the third quarter of final 12 months. From that perspective, making the nation extra enticing to exterior funding isn’t the worst thought — particularly with corporations like Microsoft planning to spend $80 billion on new knowledge facilities this 12 months.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/uk-to-fast-track-data-center-approvals-as-part-of-ai-action-plan-163753744.html?src=rss