According to a Whitehall department, the funding that was committed by the previous administration of the Conservative Party was not allotted in its budget, and as a result, it will not be taken forward.
The Labour Party has withdrawn the Conservatives’ pledged investment of £1.3 billion in technological and artificial intelligence initiatives.
According to the Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT), the financing that was committed by the previous administration, which was held by the Conservatives, was not allocated in its budget, and as a result, the project will not move forward.
Additionally, it contained an additional £500 million for the AI Research Resource, which is a program that helps fund computing power for artificial intelligence, as well as £800 million for the development of a next-generation exascale supercomputer at the University of Edinburgh. This supercomputer is capable of executing one billion billion calculations every second.
It was planned that the 300 million pounds that had previously been set aside for the Artificial Intelligence Research Resource would be maintained.
“We are absolutely committed to building technology infrastructure that delivers growth and opportunity for people across the UK,” said a spokesman for the Department of Science and Information Technology (DSIT).
Despite the fact that there are billions of pounds worth of unmet promises, the government is making expenditure decisions that are both tough and necessary across all departments.
“This is essential to restoring economic stability and delivering our national mission for growth.”
The Labor government declared that it would take into account the possibility of future investments in computer infrastructure after developing its Artificial Intelligence Opportunities Action Plan under the direction of industry expert Matt Clifford.
Barney Hussey-Yeo, the founder and chief executive officer of Cleo AI, an artificial intelligence business that intends to assist individuals in better managing their finances, has voiced his disapproval of the decision to eliminate financing.
According to what he said to a news channel, “It is detrimental to all AI companies in the UK.”
If this project is scrapped, the United Kingdom will no longer have a national compute capability for artificial intelligence research and training.
We will develop fewer researchers, fewer artificial intelligence firms will be established, and ultimately, we will continue to fall farther and more behind the United States and China in terms of economic progress.
“Labour has to invest in tech and AI if it expects to reignite growth.”
He concluded by saying: “If the UK doesn’t have national capability and also doesn’t have any tech giants, it’ll never be a significant player in AI and won’t reap the economic benefits.”
In a post that he made on the social media platform X, Andrew Griffith, who is the shadow science, innovation, and technology secretary for the Conservative Party, stated that “if Labour have lower ambitions for UK tech sector – or the new secretary of state cannot get the same level of support for DSIT from the chancellor – that’s up to them, but no one should be fooled by Labour trying to blame their predecessors.”
“Unlike Labour, we vowed to increasing that amount by an additional 10% in our platform, and we increased public spending on research to a record figure of twenty billion pounds per year for the fiscal year 2024/25.
“AI and exascale compute were both beneficiaries of this increased funding.”
He concluded by saying: “As a point of fact, at the time the election was called, ministers had been advised by officials that the department was likely to underspend its budget for the current financial year.”
In spite of the fact that the University of Edinburgh has already spent thirty-one million pounds on a new wing of its advanced computing center, which was constructed specifically for the purpose of housing the supercomputer, the future of the exascale supercomputer project is still under investigation.
The university’s website states that the organization had anticipated beginning the initial step of the installation process in the year 2025.
A representative from the university stated: “The University of Edinburgh has led the way in supercomputing within the UK for decades and is ready to work with the government to support the next phase of this technology in the UK, in order to unlock its benefits for industry, public services and society.”
It has been brought to our attention that Professor Sir Peter Mathieson, who serves as both the principal and vice chancellor of the institution, is requesting an appointment with the technology secretary as soon as possible.