In the area of digital technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), the UK budget can be a barometer of technological development and hype. However, there is a worrying drive towards deregulation in the background – combined with an apparent desire to encourage the rights holders for data to share it with companies involved in AI.
The chancellor’s latest spring budget expresses an understandable keenness for the UK to “maximise our potential in AI”. Also mentioned in the budget is a £900 million investment in an “exascale supercomputer and AI Research Resource” to support the significant need for computing power this AI commitment will entail. There is also an annual £1 million prize for the best scientific progress in AI.
