Eight years ago I moved to the UK from Denmark because I believed London was the best city in Europe for founders to start technology companies. I still believe this is true today: we have a thriving academic community, a strong technology talent and investment capital pool, and a government that recognizes the transformative power of AI.
Now more than ever, the UK has a real opportunity to be a world leader in the development and deployment of artificial intelligence. The National AI Strategy And the £1bn AI sector deal were positive signs. However, if we want to remain competitive with the US and China, the UK government needs to consider updating its industrial strategy to better support UK AI startups.
On April 16, I had the pleasure of speaking to the UK Parliament’s Economic and Trade Committee about how industrial policy can be used to build on the UK’s strengths and competitive advantages. Here are three key measures I highlighted to the committee that could boost the UK’s AI industry.
Offer affordable access to computing power through GPU credits or cloud resources
Training state-of-the-art AI models requires enormous computing power in the form of high-performance GPUs. For example, it took time 3 million GPU hours for an Nvidia A100 processor to train Meta’s Llama 2 models. Renting the appropriate cloud computing capacity today would cost around $15 million to $20 million, not to mention the additional storage and operational costs. These are staggering amounts that can be unaffordable for most startups, even ones like Synthesia that have reached unicorn status.
The government could offer UK AI companies loans or subsidized tariffs to access world-class cloud computing resources. However, it is important to note that this access should not be through new supercomputers or national data centers, as no one will use these. Instead, it needs to be made easy for every startup through existing cloud providers such as Microsoft, Google or AWS. India, Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates are already taking this approach and recognizing the value of access to hardware for their AI ecosystems.
Open public datasets for research and development
Data is the fuel that powers large AI models. The UK has a wealth of public data assets in areas such as healthcare, transport and climate, which could be opened up to start-ups and researchers to develop powerful AI applications that benefit the public good.
Properly anonymized, these data sets represent a competitive advantage that the UK should exploit. For example, the NHS in England recently faced this the worst waiting times on record for cancer patients. There are a few promising AI startups Developing tools for cancer imaging and diagnosis, as well as computer modeling for drug design and predictive therapies, access to anonymized healthcare data could dramatically improve the accuracy of their machine learning models, leading to better resource allocation in hospitals or faster patient diagnosis and care.
Demand the adoption of AI in all public services to create a market
If the UK government committed to adopting AI in areas such as healthcare, education or smart city operations, it would create an integrated market and use cases for startups to develop innovative solutions. This would stimulate further investment and create a virtuous cycle of AI growth and public impact.
In the US, President Biden directed all federal agencies to appoint senior AI officials to oversee the federal government’s development and deployment of AI. The UK government could go further and set specific targets and metrics for AI use across its departments, creating sustained and consistent demand that would motivate the private and public sectors to work together more efficiently.
To its credit, the UK government has so far taken a balanced and pragmatic approach to AI, including proposing regulation that focuses on managing real risks and promoting socially useful innovations. Rather than preemptively banning certain applications of AI or getting lost in pointless debates about existential risks, the UK’s AI regulatory proposals aim to develop guardrails and best practices in areas such as transparency, human oversight and ethical considerations.
This measured approach, which embraces both innovation and responsible development, is prudent. It recognizes that AI is too powerful an opportunity to waste with too drastic limitations. At the same time, proactive governance is needed to build trust and ensure that AI systems remain consistent with our existing laws and ethical values.
Every day I am fortunate to speak with business leaders around the world, from small business owners to Fortune 100 executives, who are thinking about adopting AI at scale in their organizations. We can all agree that AI will fundamentally transform every industry and economic sector, from healthcare and scientific research to transportation, manufacturing and education. This, in turn, will boost economic growth, create new jobs and improve living standards for the nations at the forefront of the global AI revolution.
By investing in affordable computing power, unlocking data assets and creating a robust market for AI services, the UK can establish itself as a true AI superpower. With balanced regulation and ecosystem support, UK AI startups and entrepreneurs can cement the UK’s status as a global leader in this transformative technology.
Victor Riparbelli is CEO and co-founder of Synthesia.
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