Govt to invest £93m in AI

The government is to invest £93 million in artificial intelligence over the next four years as part of its £1 billion Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF).

The investment of £23.2 million a year is part of an effort to ramp up activity in a sector that could add in the region of £654 billion to the UK economy by 2035.

The Chancellor, Philip Hammond, said: “Addressing the UK’s productivity gap is key to raising living standards and ensuring we are match-fit to compete in the global economy.”

The government said its AI investment of £93 million over four years would be used to make industry and public services more productive by developing AI and robotics systems that could be deployed in extreme environments that occur in offshore energy, nuclear energy, space and deep mining.

Greg Clark, the Business Secretary, added that the government could invest an additional £38 million into collaborative R&D projects, working with industry partners on artificial intelligence and driverless cars.

He said: “As part of our Plan for Britain, this government wants to create a modern industrial strategy to support the key sectors of our economy and spread jobs, prosperity and opportunity around the whole country.

“Through the ISCF, we will provide an enormous boost to our world-class research and development sector, to help turn brilliant British innovations into new businesses and good jobs.”