UK can benefit from AI but we need fairness, transparency and to protect creative rights

The Government has announced a plan to try to harness the opportunities of AI to drive economic growth and transform services.

 

The key changes the Government says it wants to bring in include:

• forging new AI Growth Zones to speed up planning proposals and build more AI infrastructure. The first of these will be in Culham, Oxfordshire
• increasing the public compute capacity by twentyfold including work starting on a brand new supercomputer
• creating a new National Data Library to safely and securely unlock the value of public data and support AI development
• a dedicated AI Energy Council chaired by the Science and Energy Secretaries – this will directly support the government’s mission to become a clean energy superpower by tapping into technologies like small modular reactors.

There was not much mention of the creative industries, and copyright in particular which is subject to a separate consultation reporting later this year.

Mike Clancy, General Secretary of Prospect and TUC digital lead, responded:

“There is no escaping the impact AI is going to have on our economy and lives so it is right that the Government is putting a plan in place to try to put the UK at the forefront of its development and use. It is also good to see the work of Prospect members at UKAEA recognised with Culham named as the first AI growth zone.

“There is a double opportunity for the UK here, not only to lead in terms of the development of technology but also to become the gold standard for ensuring everyone benefits from its implementation. We also need to look though at how we protect the rights of creative workers, including not just ensuring copyright protection but transparency over the use of creative work to train AI models.

“As the country’s leading tech union we want to see workers positively involved in every stage of development. Tripartite collaboration with state, business and the workforce is the only way to ensure we achieve a future where everyone reaps the rewards of progress.”

On the use of AI in the civil service he said:

“We have always believed that there are potentially large positives to the use of AI and other new technology in the civil service, allowing skilled public servants to minimise routine tasks and focus on tasks which require their expertise.

“But to make any technology work properly and to minimise the risks involved it needs to be introduced in consultation with their workforce, not imposed on them.

“With AI being deployed across the economy in the coming years, government should set an example of what good practice looks like for AI adoption by working with civil servants and their trade unions to integrate this technology safely and effectively.”

On the energy component of the plan he said:

“The government is right to identify a potential synergy between AI and nuclear energy which can provide the reliable power needed for large data centres , but to take advantage of this we need to end more than a decade of feet-dragging and kick-start the next generation of nuclear energy projects.

“The failure to properly back nuclear has led to a situation where the majority of our nuclear capacity is set to go offline in the coming years, urgent action is needed to preserve Britain’s status as a world-leader in nuclear skills and technology.

“This needs to start with a clear signal in the spending review to green-light Sizewell C and back both future large and small scale nuclear projects.”