New UK Government Shelves $1.7B in Funding for Major AI Projects

The U.K.’s new Labor government pledged to put AI at the heart of its agenda. A week later, it shelved $1.7 billion in funding for AI and technology projects to balance the books.

The new government claims to have inherited a financial mess from the recently ousted Conservative Party, with the new chancellor Rachel Reeves claiming the previous government “covered up” a $27.9 billion hole in public spending.

Cash set aside for AI projects is among the sacrifices being made as the government tries to “restore economic stability.”

Chief among the projects losing funding is an exascale supercomputer located in Edinburgh, Scotland. The $1 billion supercomputer, which would have been one of only a few exascale supercomputers globally and accessible to researchers.

The Edinburgh exascale supercomputer’s future is unclear, with the university’s vice-chancellor Sir Peter Mathieson reportedly seeking an urgent meeting with the science secretary.

Also scrapped was $633 million that would have gone toward providing computing resources for AI research.

The government defended the decision, telling the Guardian it cut “unfunded commitments.”

Prioritizing the Essentials

AI was at the center of the previous Sunak administration as the government sought to capitalize on the world’s hottest tech topic, leading the AI Safety Summit events and launching a new supercomputer in Bristol.

Related:AI Summit Speakers Urge Next UK Leaders to Sustain AI Investments

The new Labor government was voted in on a platform of change, as the public turned on a Conservative party that oversaw declining wages and a platform of austerity that crippled some public services.

Labor is now looking to balance the books, with Reeves trying to cut unnecessary spending, focusing on investing in what the government considers essential such as the country’s public health care system rather than mammoth exascale supercomputers.

AI is also at a different stage of the hype cycle now compared to when the previous government doubled down on AI, with a focus more on effective use cases and cost implementations.

Labor isn’t abandoning AI though. It has plans to put AI at the heart of the government’s agenda to improve public services. 

The new Labor government recently launched the AI Opportunities Action Plan, a road map that will look at ways to accelerate the use of AI to improve British services.

Matt Clifford, who founded the startup accelerator Entrepreneur First was appointed by the government to lead the project.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) also launched an AI Opportunities Unit, which will implement recommendations from the Action Plan.  

Related:UK to Open 9 AI Research Hubs, Upskill Staff

“Together we will use AI to drive productivity and economic growth in every part of the country so we can make everyone better off,” said Science Secretary Peter Kyle.

Reaction to news of the cuts, however, was mixed.

“For a country that invented the computer and software, this is rather disappointing,” said John Bates, CEO of SER Group and former Cambridge University computer science lecturer.

Chris van der Kuyl, chair of 4J Studios and a principal at Chroma Ventures, called the decision “idiotic” and consigned the U.K. to the “tech slow lane.”

Mahesan Niranjan, a professor of electronics and computer science at the University of Southampton, however, said the decision was a “good move” as it could help AI “take a pause and lose some noise.”

Toby Cubitt, co-founder and CTO of London and Bristol-based quantum algorithms company Phasecraft, told AI Business that funding uncertainties could affect the country’s tech sectors.

“We understand the new government has to make difficult spending decisions and prioritize the most pressing needs,” Cubitt said. “ As the Chancellor has clearly acknowledged, growth and innovation, not austerity, is the solution. Uncertainty about long-term funding and support for science and technology in the U.K. has a disproportionate chilling effect that has knock-on effects many years or even decades into the future, in highly mobile talent and investment moving elsewhere and not returning.”