The new UK Labour government has axed a £1.3billion tech and AI fund promised by the Conservatives, according to the BBC.
The investment fund should have included £800million towards Edinburgh University’s creation of an exascale computer, and £500 million for AI Research Resource – a fund for computing power and AI.
However, the money was never allocated in the previous administration’s budget, the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) told the BBC.
The funds were unveiled less than a year ago.
The previous Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, pledged to make the UK a ‘tech and science superpower’, while he was leading the country.
The country then went on to host the first ‘AI Safety Summit’, which brought together politicians and technology leaders to discuss the rise of generative AI and potential threats and opportunities.
Technology leaders are criticising the government’s decisions to scrap the plans.
Fraser Stewart, chief commercial officer for fintech platform Lyfeguard said the decision to cancel funding is a “setback for the UK’s global technology superpower ambitions, stifling the next innovations that could have been key to business and economic growth.”
He said that he hopes that this is not the start of a trend of tech funding cuts.
Libero Raspa, director of IT consultancy adesso UK agreed that this decision would be a setback for the industry.
Both Stewart and Raspa said that the government should be collaborating with academia and industry, and working with partners and AI experts to create solutions to key issues, boosting efficiency, and ensuring “the UK remains at the forefront of the AI race.”
Still, some remain optimistic. Kevin Cochrane, CMO at independent cloud computing provider Vultr said that while this may have left people wondering how the UK can “possibly lead the way on AI if it’s not willing to invest in the technology.”
“The devil here is in the detail and there is still phenomenal opportunity for the UK in this arena,” he said.
“AI, as a technology, is maturing at a rate of knots,” he continued, and “this announcement gives the UK the chance to refocus, look at the long-term potential of the technology, its impact on businesses, and how to position the nation so that it reaps all the benefits this technology can provide.”
Cochrane added that the UK now needs to find the right balance between fostering innovation and maintaining regulatory boundaries, but acknowledged that this is “a massive hurdle that every nation on the planet is grappling with.”
“Today’s announcement may seem like a step backwards, but as I’m sure Team GB’s Tade Ojora and Alastair Chalmers will attest, sometimes that extra run-up is needed to clear a tall hurdle.”