Prime Minister pledges to unlock “vast potential” of AI with new action plan

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer this week unveiled the government’s new AI Opportunities Action Plan setting out how the UK could become a leader in the space and using the technology to boost growth and help deliver public services. 

Commissioned by Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology Peter Kyle MP and led by entrepreneur and AI expert Matt Clifford, the strategy sets out three priority areas of: investing in the foundations of AI, ensuring cross-economy AI adoption, and positioning the UK as an ‘AI maker, not an AI taker’.  

The government has been keen to point towards the support that the plan has received from industry, with leading tech firms committing £14bn towards various initiatives to support the development and uptake of AI. Among the more eye-catching proposals are plans for the creation of new AI Growth Zones across the UK,  and investment in a new supercomputer to boost hardware to boost the UK’s AI capabilities.  

Now in terms of what this means for the public, Starmer was keen to highlight the benefits that AI could bring to the public sector, whether using AI to identify pot holes for local authorities to fill, or using AI to handle the administrative tasks and freeing up doctors and frontline health workers to spend more time on patient-facing tasks.  

Long term the ambition will be to turn the UK into an AI superpower, with Starmer no doubt looking to claim credit in this process. Starmer spoke at length in his time as Leader of the Opposition about the transformative role that previous Labour government have played in the adoption of innovative new technologies, with Harold Wilson the standout. If AI can be Starmer’s answer to Wilson’s ‘white heat’ moment, he will have done very well indeed.  

Yet in the shorter term Starmer still faces headaches and political challenges to navigate. Away from the immediate questions around the long term viability of his Chancellor Rachel Reeves, his City Minister Tulip Siddiq, and the wider economic challenges, the AI announcement has caused some consternation among the wider trade union movement.  

Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham warned that AI “creates new risks and all too often results in workers feeling alienated and demotivated”, while the more Starmer-aligned Unison also called for workers to have “proper input” into how AI is used in the workplace. Neither of these objections in themselves should prove too problematic for the Prime Minister, but it does highlight an uneasiness in some parts about the risks involved in the coming AI revolution.  

The AI revolution continues apace. Enough to get this government back on track long term? Who knows. But certainly enough to give them something else to talk about in the meantime.