{"id":8931,"date":"2025-01-16T09:16:11","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T09:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=8931"},"modified":"2025-01-16T09:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T09:20:09","slug":"thoughts-on-the-uk-governments-ai-boost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2025\/01\/thoughts-on-the-uk-governments-ai-boost.htm","title":{"rendered":"A few thoughts on the UK Government’s AI announcement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Most of the text in this post previously appeared on my LinkedIn feed. I thought it should have been here\u2026<\/em>

Sometimes, I read something on LinkedIn and repost or comment, before realising I’ve pretty much written an entire blog post. On my phone. Twice, because I navigated away and lost the first attempt. Maybe I should have put in here, but it probably gets seen by more people on LinkedIn. Still, I own this platform, so I’m putting it up for posterity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The post in question was one from the BBC’s Technology Editor, Zoe Kleinman. Zoe had posted<\/a> insights about the UK Prime Minister’s “bold and ambitious plans to support the UK’s AI sector”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zoe’s post and articles are well worth a read, but I wanted to add some more:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“[…] I can see why the UK wants to position itself as an innovative place for growth, without being (quite as) reliant on US tech behemoths, but most of us have yet to establish what we want to use AI for.

Sure, \u201cAI\u201d is the perceived answer to everything at the moment – and there are some very large companies with very deep pockets pouring billions into \u201cAI\u201d – but it\u2019s an arms race. \u201cBig tech\u201d hasn\u2019t worked out how to make money from its AI investments yet. The tech giants just want to make sure they have a big slice of that pie when we do finally get there.

Putting aside the significant environmental and social challenges presented by AI (as mentioned in Zoe\u2019s post<\/a> […]), \u201cwe\u201d (our companies and our countries) haven\u2019t got a solid business case. We just know we can\u2019t afford to be left behind\u2026

We\u2019ve used some AI technologies in a variety forms for years (for example Machine Learning) – and the recent advances in generative AI (genAI) have democratised access to AI assistants and opened a huge opportunity. But genAI is just one type of AI, and we don\u2019t fully understand the large language models that underpin it.

One thing that sticks in my mind is something I heard on a recent podcast<\/a>, when <\/a>Johannes Kleske<\/a> commented something along the lines of \u201cwhen it\u2019s in the future, it\u2019s AI. Once we have worked out what to do with it, it\u2019s just software.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More on the UK Prime Minister’s AI announcement<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Artificial Intelligence: Plan to ‘unleash AI’ across UK revealed [BBC News]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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