The government's new Compute Roadmap will harness AI to deliver on the UK's national priorities under the Plan for Change.
- UK to develop new medical cures and tools to cut emissions by delivering the processing power needed to fuel AI on British shores.
- Projects supporting the government's Plan for Change - particularly on economic growth and building a better NHS will be prioritised access, with the UK's most powerful supercomputer coming online from today.
- Edinburgh also set to become the first National Supercomputing Centre, while Scotland and Wales are poised for billions in private investment and thousands of new jobs as future sites of AI Growth Zones.
Artificial Intelligence will be used to deliver the UK's national priorities under the government's Plan for Change and position the country as an AI maker rather than an AI taker - accelerating economic growth and transforming public services, as a new strategy looks to bolster the country's compute capacity to power new breakthroughs in AI.
Businesses and researchers use compute - essentially the computer chips that process huge amounts of data - to train and build AI models or process prompts and questions through AI to discover everything from new drugs which treat and beat diseases to new tools to tackle climate change. Demand for cutting-edge compute power is already expected to surge by 5.7x between now and 2035, with the government taking vital steps to ensure the UK can stay ahead of the curve as the technology develops.
Published today (Thursday 17 July), the Compute Roadmap will deliver on the £1 billion set aside in the Spending Review to increase the UK's compute infrastructure - allowing us to drive forward AI development on our own terms to ensure the technology can deliver for the British people. This will mean reducing our reliance on foreign computing power to deliver the transformations which will improve public services and help to fix the foundations of the economy. The Roadmap also builds on the ambition of the 10-year infrastructure strategy and the Modern Industrial Strategy to put the government's vision into action - increasing investment and growing the industries of the future.
Compute is the raw processing power that drives AI's development. Without enough power, we cannot deliver the breakthroughs to treat and beat diseases, make industries cleaner and greener, or find new ways to fight climate change. To help deliver on these shared national priorities, we will expand the UK's AI Research Resource (AIRR) twenty-fold over the next 5 years. The system, delivered in partnership with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Nvidia, HPE, Dell Technologies and Intel, brings together the country's most powerful supercomputers - Isambard-AI based in Bristol and Dawn in Cambridge.
The Technology Secretary flicked the switch on the Isambard supercomputer at its formal launch in Bristol today, meaning the AI Research Resource (AIRR) is now fully up and running - transforming the UK's public compute capacity by being able to process in one second what it would take then entire global population 80 years to achieve. When the AIRR's planned expansion is complete in the coming years, it will be vastly more powerful than the world's current leading supercomputers.
University College London researchers are already using Isambard to line up pioneering AI tools which could revolutionise NHS cancer screening. Using prostate cancer as its initial test case, they are harnessing the system to develop one of the first scalable AI models dedicated to medical imaging - using AI to analyse MRI scans and identify patients in need of treatment sooner.
Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology Peter Kyle said:
Britain has top of the class talent in AI and our plan will put a rocket under our brilliant researchers, scientists, and engineers - giving them the tools they need to make Britain the best place to do their work.
This will mean we can harness the technology in Britain to transform our public services, drive growth, and unlock new opportunities for every community in the country.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, said:
We are harnessing the power of AI to transform our public services, drive innovation and fuel economic growth that puts money in people's pockets.
As technology advances, our Plan for Change is ensuring we are ahead of the curve, expanding our sovereign AI capabilities so we can make scientific breakthroughs, equip businesses with new tools for growth, and create new jobs across the country.
The AIRR will see the UK's compute capacity increase to 420 AI exaFLOP by 2030 - the equivalent of one billion people spending 13,316 years doing what the full AIRR will do in one second. That means all one billion people would have needed to start calculating more than 8,000 years before Stonehenge was built, without taking a break. Projects that matter most to the UK and align with national priorities will be prioritised access to the AIRR to help deliver the Plan for Change - as well as those which will have a real-world impact and deliver breakthroughs that change lives and grow the economy.
Researchers at the University of Liverpool meanwhile have been using Isambard to develop their EIMCRYSTAL system. Their model harnesses AI to speed up the discovery of new chemical reactions for use in industry, sifting through 68 million chemical combinations to find new solutions which will decarbonise British industry to make it greener, cleaner, and more sustainable. Isambard is already supporting other areas of highly ambitious AI research. The Sovereign AI Unit has launched an early pilot supporting academic researchers in AI for biosciences, foundational AI research, and advanced materials. These will be some of the most compute-intensive training runs that academics have carried out on UK infrastructure.
Working alongside the AI Research Resource , a network of National Supercomputing Centres will also be set up across the country - with the first based in Edinburgh, the future home of the UK's most powerful research supercomputer. These will work as dedicated centres of expertise, connecting users not only with access to cutting-edge processing power, but catalysing greater collaboration between industry, academia, and researchers. They will help to build stronger links with existing talent in their regions - giving all areas of the country a supporting role in the UK's ability to be an AI maker.
To further support the UK's AI sovereignty ambitions, the Sovereign AI Unit has been established in the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology, backed with £500 million of funding. Strengthening the UK's domestic AI capabilities, including by developing the UK's compute ecosystem, will be a key focus for the unit.
The strategy set out today and the work of the Sovereign AI Unit will ensure the UK can roll out the next generation of champions in compute technology - sparking the creating of leaders in a range of fields to put British innovation and expertise on the map.
Today's Compute Roadmap also puts Scotland and Wales in the frame to benefit from billions in private investment and thousands of new jobs as future homes to AI Growth Zones. These dedicated AI hotbeds offer accelerated planning permissions to speed up the roll-out of data centres, which will be powered by responsible and cutting-edge energy sources like small modular reactors (SMRs).
AI Growth Zones will not only deliver the infrastructure we need but also support the technology's evolution in a range of other areas. These will include R&D and Innovation Platforms, Adoption Testbeds and taking on a role as skills and talent hubs which will give people the tools they need to develop, use, and work with the technology.
