Britain | Britain’s AI future

How to make Britain’s AI dreams reality

Rishi Sunak’s bet that Britain can prosper from AI requires a new approach

Portrait of Rishi Sunak with a digital circuit as a background
Image: Nate Kitch

RISHI SUNAK dreams of Britain becoming an AI superpower. The prime minister says the technology, the subject of intense global interest thanks to successes of large language models such as GPT-4, could unlock economic growth and improve sclerotic public services. AI-related announcements these days gush from Downing Street faster than commentators can keep up. In March Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, vowed to spend £1bn ($1.3bn) over five years on AI and supercomputing. In May Mr Sunak met the bosses of leading AI companies in London. On June 7th, while visiting Joe Biden in Washington, he said that Britain would host the “first global summit on Artificial Intelligence” this autumn.

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This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Rishi Sunak’s AI dreams”

BritGPT: How to make Britain an AI superpower

From the June 17th 2023 edition

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