UK PM Keir Starmer Cancels Sunak’s AI Plans for New High-Tech Vision

Key Takeaways

• Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer has announced a bullish new plan to boost the U.K.’s AI leadership. 
• The “AI Opportunities Action Plan” will involve boosts to the country’s data centers and computing capacity.
• Starmer’s action plan marks a U-turn to Rishi Sunak’s safety-focused vision.

U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has unveiled a new action plan to establish the country as a world leader in artificial intelligence, marking a U-turn from the previous government’s focus on AI regulation.

The new set of pledges comes after several prominent tech companies claimed the U.K. risked falling behind the U.S. if it remained focused on regulation over innovation.

President-elect Donald Trump, who will take office next week, has vowed to heavily reduce America’s AI regulation, and it seems Starmer is prepared to do the same to avoid falling behind.

Starmer’s New UK AI Plan

On Monday, Jan. 13, Starmer unveiled the country’s new plan, claiming that the AI industry needs a “government that is on their side.”

As part of the “AI Opportunities Action Plan,” the government will aim to twentyfold compute capacity in the public sector by the end of the decade.

This will partially be achieved by the country’s mission to expand its data center capacity, which will aid AI model developers in training their systems on British soil.

Starmer also announced the launch of several AI “growth zones” across the country, where planning permissions will be relaxed to facilitate data center building.

The U.K. will also invest in a new supercomputer to boost computing power across the country.

U-Turn From Previous Government

Starmer has adopted a surprisingly bullish approach to AI, marking a significant U-turn from Conservative leader Rishi Sunak’s safety-first plan.

In the beginning days of taking office, Starmer’s Labour government canceled two major Conservative computing projects, citing a change in priorities.

The two projects, an AI research resource and a supercomputer, were slated to cost the taxpayer £1.3 billion ($1.57 billion).

However, Starmer’s action plan has renewed part of Sunak’s vision with a new AI supercomputer project.

Starmer said AI “will drive incredible change” in the country and “has the potential to transform the lives of working people.”

“Our plan will make Britain the world leader,” the U.K. PM added.

Mike Beck, Darktrace’s CISO, told CCN that the recommendations would help the U.K. turn AI into an economic engine.

“The UK has great research talent, but much more the benefits of AI will come from higher rates of AI adoption in the industries where we are world leaders—from financial services to life sciences,” Beck added.

Safety Barely Mentioned

Starmer’s speech and accompanying documents about the U.K.’s new AI Action Plan show a general lack of focus on AI safety.

Trump, who has promised to deregulate America’s tech industry to promote more innovation.

Starmer’s approach could also be in direct response to Big Tech, which has recently warned that the U.K. was falling behind in innovation.

Amanda Brock, CEO of OpenUK, previously told CCN in an interview that Britain should align with America’s AI stance.

“What we know is that alignment with the U.S.’s AI lead will be needed to be impactful, and that is likely to be, at best, light touch and undoubtedly open,” Brock said.

The open technology advocate said that Britain’s position in AI had “slipped.”

However, some experts have also called out Starmer’s plans for being too similar to those that will soon be put in place by President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump, who will be sworn into power on Jan. 20, has promised to deregulate America’s tech industry to promote more innovation.

Forbes McKenzie, the founder and CEO of start-up McKenzie Intelligence Services, told CCN that he was concerned the AI plan was a reaction to the current AI buzz, rather than a “strategic push forward.”

McKenzie claimed some of the plan, such as the increase in computing capacity to bring more AI power under government control, appeared to be “jumping on the bandwagon” of where the U.S. was heading.

“…We appear to be jumping on the bandwagon, chasing the kind of rhetoric coming out of the US, which won’t necessarily deliver long-term value,” he said.