The UK will never be the centre of AI because of “plans” (and energy)
Welcome to AI Collision 💥,
In today’s collision between AI and our world:
- The UK goes all-in on plans
- The wealth window
- Tyson vs. Hurricane
If that’s enough to get the plans made, read on…
AI Collision 💥
Remember the Labour promise from their manifesto leading into the UK general elections?
As a reminder, we covered it and here’s what they said:
We will ensure our industrial strategy supports the development of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) sector, removes planning barriers to new datacentres. And we will create a National Data Library to bring together existing research programmes and help deliver data-driven public services, whilst maintaining strong safeguards and ensuring all of the public benefit.
Well, this new thing is the AI Opportunities Action Plan.
As the government puts it, “It will give the industry the foundation it needs and will turbocharge the Plan for Change.” This, of course, is part of the upcoming Digital and Technology Sector Plan.
So, to get things straight, this is a plan, as part of a plan that will enable plan for change. Incredible amount of planning here…
The National Data Library is in this new plan. There are sexy sounding things like AI Growth Zones and an all-new government department, the AI Energy Council.
But the thing I love most about this detailed plan is their intention to “Build a brand-new supercomputer with enough AI power to play itself at chess half a million times a second.”
And there it is folks. The crux of what AI in the UK is all about. The ability for a supercomputer to play itself in chess.
Honestly, I’m sceptical of all government “plans”. And this government seems very good at making plans and taking little action. In fairness, the Tories before them were equally as good at making plans and taking little action.
If any of them had half an ounce of sense about them, this “plan” would have been well into action already and the UK wouldn’t be lagging the US by such a wide margin.
Although the UK does rank third in the world when it comes to AI development, the gap between us, China and then the US is astounding.
But let’s get serious. This is all fine and dandy, making big plans to make people feel good about an economy that is frankly halfway down the toilet. So much so that “sources close to the Treasury” say about Rachel Reeves that “She’s got choices to make and she knows they’re all shit.”
But with a major spending review due in June, what better time than to dump a very ambitious action plan on people to get them excited about the UK economy.
This is political tomfoolery 101.
The good news is, as the chart above indicates, the UK has a fair bit of built-up potential when it comes to AI. You cannot neglect the truth that some of the world’s finest minds, researchers, innovators, universities, research labs and, yes, companies existing in the UK.
There’s two problems though: one, this all comes at a cost, and two, it comes with great energy demand.
Problem one is not that hard to solve. There is already significant investment flowing to the UK for AI, be it research or the development of AI innovation (that likely goes on to list on the US markets…).
The energy problem, however, can’t be solved in an election cycle. That’s why it’s such a big problem now. The reason for sky-high energy isn’t just a Labour problem, it’s not just a Conservatives problem, it’s a problem they’ve all been complicit in.
Try building the world’s most energy-hungry data centres when this is the backdrop of decades-long energy policies…
From the BBC:
From Euronews:
This from the The Guardian:
And this from The Telegraph:
This is the biggest handbrake on British innovation in history. It’s not unsolvable thankfully. This new AI action plan specifically mentions energy tech like small modular reactors. It is the AI energy that AI needs to become a driver of growth in the UK.
But none of it happens, unless the energy is fixed. And yes, the answer to that is nuclear, and yes, the answer to that is a government willing to put policy in play that might benefit the opposition. And yes, if they can solve the energy problem, the UK might actually yet become a powerhouse of growth thanks to AI.
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AI gone wild 🤪
This is one of the more disturbing things I’ve read about when it comes to the uses of AI. And frankly, you may not want to read on past this line.
WARNING. Disturbing content follows.
I came across this article on 404 Media while researching about some of the developments in AI video creation. I’m fascinated by the blurring of the lines around reality and AI-generated worlds.
This comes off the back of what Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was talking about at CES, where AI models are training in multiverse simulations. In essence, AI words are generated at infinite scale to test, try and learn in all feasible scenarios and situations. Then the most efficient and effective outcomes can be achieved.
The idea of AI-generated video to help create these worlds led me to come across an article on 404 Media which also references an article on Know Your Meme about what’s called “Minion Gore”.
Here’s where things get wild.
What this is, is real world gruesome videos being recreated where the humans in the videos are “Minionfied”, predominately using Runway’s Gen 3 Video-to-Video AI editing programs.
Now when we say gruesome, it’s mainly things such has war footage, public executions and, in some more select cases, murder videos that had been in the public domain.
That’s about as deep as I need to go on that.
The crazy thing is these videos are apparently popping up on social media, TikTok, X.com, Instagram and YouTube. They’re getting posted and shared faster than the platforms can take them down.
Even worse is that while platforms can try to moderate Minion Gore, the posters are quickly using AI to change the characters again. Some examples, as the article references, have changed from Minions to Santa Claus.
Now admittedly this isn’t an “AI” problem, it’s a human problem. But it’s a reminder that while I believe our AI future still delivers a net benefit to humanity, in the wrong hands and with the wrong intentions, AI can be used as a very dark, disturbing and dangerous tool.
Boomers & Busters 💰
AI and AI-related stocks moving and shaking up the markets this week. (All performance data below over the rolling week).
Boom 📈
- Team Internet Group (LSE:TIG) up 12%
- Echo IQ (ASX:EIQ) up 2%
- Darktrace Plc (LSE:DARK) up 0.5%
Bust 📉
- iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT) down 35%
- Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) down 10%
- Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE:TSM) down 9%
From the hive mind 🧠
- Elon Musk’s pushing hard into the development of AI for all his companies, from Tesla to SpaceX, X.com and xAI. But he cannot reach his AI vision alone. He needs to tap into the expertise of a lot of other companies, like Nvidia for instance. But not even Nvidia can do it alone. What other companies does Elon need? Well, here’s a look at exactly who.
- Mark Zuckerberg wants you to believe he’s now one of the “good guys” with Facebook’s “new” approach to freedom of speech. After his new makeover, doesn’t he just look the part too? The problem is he’s also still running one of the largest data companies in the world, and one of the companies at the forefront of AI. So when he says it’s for the people, he really means it’s for Meta and its profits.
- We’ve covered some good-news AI stories over time, from AI helping identify cancer early on to AI helping hedgehog populations. Well, here’s another, with AI potentially helping women get pregnant with greater success when undergoing IVF treatment.
Artificial Polltelligence 🗳️
Well, you’ve gone and done it. You’ve surprised me a little with the responses from last week’s question on owning Nvidia stock.
It’s pretty close to a tie here, which I will admit, I didn’t expect. At least not after the resounding win from our poll on 7 January.
I’d be interested to know what it would take for you to now invest in Nvidia. But that’s not the poll question for today. Instead, it’s tied to the government’s push towards building Britain off the back of the potential of AI.
I’m going to assume that if you read this, you’re of the view AI is a strong catalyst and driver for economic growth. Yes, I know there are still fears of rampant unemployment and the “machines” taking all our jobs. But, in the event that doesn’t happen, and AI is a catalyst for greater efficiency and productivity and economic growth, I would like to know if you think Britain can be a major beneficiary of the opportunity.
If you have any other comments or answers, please ensure to leave a comment below.
Weirdest AI image of the day
Mike Tyson vs. Hurricane – r/weirddalle
ChatGPT’s random quote of the day
All of the biggest technological inventions created by man—the airplane, the automobile, the computer—say little about his intelligence, but speak volumes about his laziness.
— Mark Kennedy
Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to leave comments and questions below,
Sam Volkering
Editor-in-Chief
AI Collision
As soon as any UK Government thinks something is a good idea then it’s time to run for cover!
And this shower will certainly find a way to make a mess of it.
By the way, Sam, I thought Darktrace got taken private by Bidco last year?
Remember Reagan saying that the worst words in the English language were … I’m from the government and I m here to help
Trust… remember this?
I’d suggest as soon as any government thinks something is good, it’s time to run for cover! You’re right about Darktrace. Looks like our data feed does not! Ha. I’ll make sure that’s corrected.
Government will ensure that any British AI innovators escape to the USA at the first opportunity, how can you run data centres with intermittent electricity?
Of the biggest datacentre projects in the world, most are in the US, but funnily enough one of the biggest is in Sines, Portugal.
Yeah, I’d rather not see UK govt get involved directly in any AI roll-out and development but should make sure the way is clear (by getting out of the way) of private enterprise and self-led departmental efforts to reduce costs (wherever there are any). The last thing we need is another govt dept or plan! If the UK is getting along with the AI roll-out just fine why would we want a politician anywhere near it?
It is telling that the table shows the UK is a bit like Belgium and less like the US or China when viewing AI progress in the context of R&D or infrastructure vs policy and governance. I’d imagine the UK will score more highly on R&D going forward assuming govt doesn’t invent unnecessary obstacles.
Here’s what the UK govt itself is especially good at – it will always a) find a way to make an efficient system less efficient, b) ensure billions are poured into useless black holes, especially tech ones, c) ignore any useful recommendations/outcomes that do result out of preference for their own self-interested nonsense and d) refuse anything that appears to dilute their power and ability to run empires of bloated staff structures and cost centres facilitating dubious ideologies. Note this relates to govt depts not the end functions themselves i.e. keep MoD well stocked with Admirals but have no ships.
Quite often those in power fail to separate responsible government from party politicking. AI might just give ministers the perfect excuse for not doing the right thing or alternatively undermine their own policies too much. Can you imagine an AI designed power grid that lowered prices and reduced carbon yet included no windfarms? – they’d just ignore the bits they didn’t like, destroying the ‘portfolio effects’ whilst no doubt elsewhere claiming an AI designed economic model that didn’t need farming inheritance tax must be flawed because it wasn’t working on a ‘portfolio effects’ basis!!!
If there is one table where the UK will almost certainly come top it is like the commercial/industrial energy cost per watt one – in the case of UK AI it’ll be taxpayer costs per unit of productivity gained.
But when it comes to creative and experimental UK enterprise and scientific use of AI I’m far more optimistic we can actually lead in specific areas.
I’d love to see AGI let loose in government itself, cutting the excess, slashing the irrelevant parts – maybe the key to AI growth in the UK is actually AI inside the government?
Sadly the simple dreadfulness of our current government will throw away the benefits of Britains great expertise in the field
I’d argue the dreadfulness of both sides of the political divide are culpable.
The one part from Starmer’s speech that should worry people was when he basically said the state would be dictating things. Like he or Reeves et al. have any idea what they are doing. It shouldn’t be the State dictating to the experts what is going on you need Govt to set the frame then leave the experts to get on with what they know best. That frame should be lower taxes, smarter regulations, less top-down State control. Cheaper and more energy would be great too!
The US tried this, and has spectacularly backfired, it might take this current political cycle to play out in the UK, but. it does feel like the next chance to have a say, the people of the UK will say we don’t want dictators anymore.
The UK is only third in the table because of its high ranking in Policy and Governance – nearly as much as the US and China combined. On R&D and Infrastructure ranking the UK is down with the also-rans.
We are an Island so why are we not using tidal energy? It is not reliant on sun or wind but tides go in and out at slightly different times all around the UK and we have the Continental shelf which should make building easier—if wind turbines can be built and serviced then so could tidal. Yes shipping lanes would have to preserved and maybe fishing grounds but no more difficult than now. The problem of changing DC to Ac for distribution has already been solved— I have noticed that Government has mentioned improving and expanding distribution too (vital)
I can only think not done because unlike owners of land suitable for panels or turbines (who get well paid to rent to turbines£) there are not enough people in a position to benefit from tidal turbines
Just think if only tidal energy had been embraced we could of had a total network providing constant reliable clean energy all over UK and probably spare to export which would pay for maintenance
This Island N EEDS to be energy and food efficient
Those are my thoughts and a pleasant year ahead
Juliet Rumble
The UK desperately needs cross party concensus for 10 and 25 year plans for the national interest. Energy, water management, agriculture military spending, NHS. Changing priorities of each successive government only adds new layers of regulation to an already broken system.
I’d start with firing the BoE chief and committee. Replace the lot with AI that will set interest at appropriate level. Next free at point of use NHS care only till retirement, with optional health insurance premium after to maintain care.
This is why the private sector has to push it, cross party consensus died many many moons ago (if it ever existed really).
The current government will dither and by the time they have selected a supplier for SMR’s it will be too late. Great article Sam👍
You saved me writing it Jim.
Plus they’ll hammer SMRs with sort of environment tax.
Thanks, Jim. Upside is Rolls Royce is clearly one of the more advanced companies in SMR development. It would be quite something if the saviour of the UK, was RR
am i crazy? they say [not me] they want to build a smart city in LA , is that why they are burning the places down, so in a couple years they start building them,am i stupid to beleive this maybe i am , but just wonder,
They don’t help themselves when before the cinders have even cooled they’re talking about rezoning, and high density living, and everything except how to help the people who’ve been ravaged by a horrible event. But hey, $700 for Uncle Joe will certainly help…right?
As to A1 and government involvement unfortunately everything the government try to lead on either fails or finishing costing 5 times more than it need to and then fails or gets abandoned (HS2!).
Probably be better if we just brmought an A I system to replace the government.
By the time HS2 is done, we’ll all have self driving cars. Imagine a world where the M25, M1, M40 and, yes…even the M6 were all free flowing with no traffic build ups!!!
great thing for pepole who can’t drive