The AI Opportunities Action Plan launched by the Prime Minister in January shows how we can use artificial intelligence to make everyone better off.
For a long time, the idea that AI can make us better off has felt like just that – an idea.
A promise of growth that’s out of reach for much of the country, driven by a technology that doesn’t have meaning in people’s everyday lives.
If anything, AI has been seen as something to fear, not welcome. In December, we ran research into how people really feel about AI. The three most common words that came up were “robot”, “scary”, and “worried”. In my role in government, it’s those last two I want to change.
I want to take AI from the lofty heights we see in films, or when we’re doom-scrolling on social media, and bring it into the real world. Working with devolved administrations and local governments, we’ll show people and businesses, from Salcombe to Stirling, how AI will actually improve their lives and give their balance sheets a boost.
Because AI Should Be a Leveller. Something that gives people access to a more personalised education for their kids, faster care in our hospitals, and for small businesses, innovations that might otherwise only exist for companies with deeper pockets.
Let’s look at how the AI Opportunities Action Plan can promote economic growth
The IMF estimates that, if we embrace AI fully, it can boost productivity by up to 1.5 percentage points a year. How will it actually do that?
Businesses that adopt AI spend less time on admin, and more time doing work that improves their bottom line. AI leads to faster scientific advancement. And it can reduce the cost of our NHS, cutting paperwork and leaving missed appointments in the past. These improvements could be worth up to an average of £47 billion to the UK each year over a decade. That’s more than enough to pay for every primary school for a year.
So how do we make sure that growth is shared across the country?
The Golden Triangle of London, Oxford, and Cambridge is rightly a source of huge pride for us. It adds £94bn to our economy, and that value will only grow as the AI Opportunities Action Plan brings more investment and infrastructure. But we have so many other pockets of AI innovation across the country that I want to celebrate and strengthen.
Wales is the global leader in semiconductors. Bristol is home to the Isambard supercomputer – we’re opening access to that for SMEs and researchers. And IT leader Kyndryl announced an AI hub, bringing 1,000 new jobs to Merseyside.
As a government, our job is to make sure the benefits of AI are evenly shared.
Through the AI Opportunities Action Plan, we’ll increase the UK’s public computing power twentyfold by 2030. And we’ll create AI Growth Zones across the UK. These hotspots will get faster planning permissions to build data centres, attracting more AI firms to the region. We’ll work with devolved administrations and local governments to decide where the new Growth Zones should be. And together, we’ll think about how we can support regional growth opportunities, so growth is felt locally, as well as nationally.
We can’t talk about AI and growth without talking about jobs
I know the fear of AI affecting people’s jobs is very real. But we can think of many jobs not as disappearing but as changing. Automation speeds up admin, so we get to spend longer on the parts of our jobs that need the qualities that make us human. Social skills. Judgement. Empathy.
And as we keep attracting AI expertise – by helping top talent move here from overseas – that means a host of new jobs. Like the 13,250 committed by leading tech firms as part of the AI Opportunities Action Plan announcement.
AI is already saving lives and opening doors to new opportunities
Recently, I Went to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge where they’re using AI to diagnose kidney cancer and Alzheimer’s earlier. This means patients with a disease are being diagnosed before it progresses too far – meaning they gain more time to get treatment.
This is just one example of where AI is already touching our daily lives, without us even realising.
I get why “scary” and “worried” are words that came up when we asked people about AI. Safety and opportunity are two sides of the same coin, and rolling out AI safely will always be on my agenda.
But look further down that list, and you see other words – “good”, “curious”, “exciting”. By growing our economy, creating jobs, and improving public services, AI gives us so much to be excited about – in our real lives, in real homes and offices across the UK. We’ll make sure every part of the country gets to share that.
Featured image via Benjamin Britworth Collier / DSIT on Flickr.
Feryal Clark MP
DesignationParliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology.
