Words: Adam Ketterer – Founder
Category(s): Branding, Positioning
Date: 16th January 2025
The government this week received a plan of action designed to help the UK “to step up; to shape the AI revolution rather than wait to see how it shapes us” – and the Prime Minister has committed to implementing all 50 of the recommendations it contains.
The AI Opportunities Action Plan was authored by Matt Clifford, a man with a number of cool jobs: amongst other things, he is a co-founder of Entrepreneur First (a ‘talent investor’ that helps exceptional individuals find a co-founder, build a startup idea, and win funding to build it); Chair of ARIA, an agency that funds ‘big bet’ R&D projects to boost the UK’s research ecosystem; and the Prime Minister’s advisor on AI opportunities (he designed the AI Safety Summit last year, and has now submitted this action plan).
(I met Matt briefly several years ago in his capacity at EF and have followed his trajectory since. He’s one of the reasons I’m bullish on the UK’s AI outlook.)
Beyond the immediate endorsement by the government, the plan has been met with pretty positive feedback from the UK startup ecosystem.
But rather than add another tech-bro hot take, here are some thoughts on the plan from someone with professionally conflicting interests: a tech marketer.
First the optimistic bit…
The plan and the messaging surrounding it stresses the positive impact it will have on the lives of ordinary people: working people, children in schools, patients in hospitals. It’s reassuringly British in its focus on fairness and safety (building on the AI Safety Institute and the AI Safety summit, also led by Matt Clifford in 2023) and in its worry about the UK’s ability to remain a world power and keep up with the US and China (and everybody else) in the AI stakes.
And most of the recommendations are uncontroversial. More investment. More infrastructure. More compute. More training.
The very un-British thing about the plan is its ambition and confidence – again, courtesy of Matt Clifford, a guy who has thought a lot about ambition and how technology is changing it. Always the VC, he writes: “This is a crucial asymmetric bet – and one the UK can and must make.”
As the founder of a B2B tech marketing agency, I unsurprisingly endorse this message. I believe in the power of technology to improve things. And am of course selfishly excited by the fact that more tech investment = more opportunities to work with exciting companies.
But, of course, not everyone is happy.
Then the concerns…
Concerns and caveats have coalesced around a few big topics:
Sustainability – Which you can read with an environmental lens as well as a ‘How the hell do we keep all this stuff running with enough money, equipment and all-important compute?’ lens. Either way, the answers given revolve around improving the efficiency and capacity of sovereign compute by a stated 20x.
(ARIA, The Advanced Research and Invention Agency, which Clifford chairs, also has a Scaling Compute program with a goal “to increase + open up new vectors of progress in the field of computing by bringing the cost of AI hardware down by >1000x.”)
The relevant section of the action plan is quite light on detail (perhaps unsurprising for the area that mentions the “UK Intelligence Community”) but it does give us one of the bigger headlines: a national supercomputer initiative is back on the table. And “novel approaches to compute hardware” conjures all sorts of quantum fun. Watch this space.
The practicalities of training/upskilling – AI folks are comfortable talking about training data. When it comes to training people, you’re usually talking about computer science PhDs. But the government has committed to training and upskilling ordinary working people to improve their lives. The detail here is of course light-to-nonexistent at this stage. But given how cost-prohibitive higher education will be for most people, and how hard it is to imagine how ‘local intermediaries’ and ‘champions’ will help on the ground, the plan to train the Great British public and drive AI adoption nationwide feels uncertain.
AI-friendly copyright law threatens creators’ IP – Speaking of training data, this is another huge area where the plan suggests the UK could entice investment and AI company-builders. “Come for the compute, stay for the data” basically – or maybe it’s the other way round…
But artists and others in the creative professions are, how can I put this, extremely pissed at the news. Some relevant bits:
“24. Reform the UK text and data mining regime so that it is at least as competitive as the EU. The current uncertainty around intellectual property (IP) is hindering innovation and undermining our broader ambitions for AI, as well as the growth of our creative industries. This has gone on too long and needs to be urgently resolved. The EU has moved forward with an approach that is designed to support AI innovation while also enabling rights holders to have control over the use of content they produce. The UK is falling behind.”
And:
“We should seek to responsibly unlock both public and private data sets to enable innovation by UK startups and researchers and to attract international talent and capital.”
Which leads us to the dilemma for tech marketers…
The very first stated “core principle” of the plan is as follows:
“Be on the side of innovators: In every element of the Action Plan, the government should ask itself: does this benefit people and organisations trying to do new and ambitious things in the UK? If not, we will fail to meet our potential.”
The foreword by the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology says there will be “some tough choices.” The plan advocates for “a proportionate, flexible regulatory approach.”
If the government is on the side of the innovators, who will be on the side of the creators? They fear this is a slippery slope into the commoditisation and theft of their work and property, and they may be right.
As tech marketers, we may find ourselves on the horns of a dilemma. As technology people, we’re excited by new possibilities and the potential for tech to do good. As marketers, we’re creative professionals, and we work with plenty more. We put our IP out into the world in good faith. Now the rules are being rewritten.
So the outlook for AI in the UK? Looking good. Very exciting. Keep ambitious and carry on! The outlook for tech marketers? It kind of depends which word you stress. Are you a tech marketer? Or a tech marketer?
Whose side are you on?