Almost every conversation about artificial intelligence in this country starts in the wrong place. Before anyone mentions the improvements in healthcare we\u2019ve seen, the businesses it is creating, or the public services it could transform, we start from a negative. Jobs apocalypse, data theft, national security \u2014 these are the themes dominating the headlines.<\/p>\n
Polling by\u00a0James\u00a0Kanagasooriam at Focal Data suggested last year that only 13 per cent of Britons wanted to \u201cpause AI\u201d development. Yet anxious lobbying groups and political opportunists are managing to lead the national conversation, trying to push that number up.<\/p>\n
I have felt it. After the recent launch of SovAI, the government\u2019s sovereign AI fund, my team has been harassed by humans and, ironically, automated bots who argue Britain should not be building AI companies at all.<\/p>\n
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I am not crying foul play \u2014 it\u2019s an important national debate that must be had. And the AI industry has done a terrible job of selling itself to the public. Some of the industry\u2019s most famous faces, who clearly understand more about machine learning\u00a0than they do economics, have discussed\u00a0the possibility of enormous job losses and existential threats<\/a>. But we must be crystal clear just how much of our national wealth and security is at risk if we let an AI \u201cdoomer\u201d movement succeed.<\/p>\n So how does AI go right for Britain?<\/p>\n First, jobs. Every wave of technology has followed a similar pattern. The spreadsheet and calculator didn\u2019t kill accountancy. It brought better financial management within reach of more small businesseses. The internet made some categories of work redundant (we all miss the Encyclopaedia Britannica salesperson) but created millions of jobs that hadn\u2019t previously existed. Those who master AI tools today will have even greater opportunities.<\/p>\n This is particularly true for the young and ambitious. Starting a shop in the 1990s was prohibitively expensive. Today, starting one online is free, and impressively, millions of young Britons have done so on a digital platform, such as Depop, Vinted, eBay or Etsy. Imagine what that generation will do with AI agents that can help them write code, build business models and design products.<\/p>\n And what about the wider economy?<\/p>\n Financial services, the industry Britain built into a global force after the 1986 \u201cBig Bang\u201d, contribute more than \u00a3110 billion a year in taxes.<\/p>\n AI, done right, will build a sector of at least comparable scale. Government analysis projects that successful AI adoption will boost GDP by over \u00a3230 billion by 2030. The tax revenues from an industry of that size would close Britain\u2019s entire national deficit. The argument over what to do with that money \u2014 better hospitals, debt reduction, lower taxes, stronger defence \u2014 should be fierce. But imagine the luxury of such a debate.<\/p>\n In the first quarter of this year alone, AI companies based here raised \u00a36 billion \u2014 more than the rest of continental Europe combined. Every big AI lab has opened or expanded offices here in the past two years. With the launch of the sovereign AI fund, we hope to encourage more of these global winners to stay here<\/a>, contributing to the UK\u2019s economy and security.<\/p>\n AI\u2019s role in our national security<\/a> is only growing. As Liz Kendall, the secretary of state for technology, said last week, the choice is not between a world with AI and one without, but between shaping our AI future or being left at its mercy. Countries that build AI industries now will have a seat at the table when the rules are written. Those that don\u2019t will have none.<\/p>\n Being at that table will require trade-offs. Businesses are queueing up to invest in the energy infrastructure<\/a> that new data centres need to develop AI models here, on UK soil. We must find a way to make that work. And our domestic capital investors must take risks again. If our pension industry had backed British venture firms in the software era like their Canadian counterparts did, the average British saver would be \u00a36,000 better off today. They didn\u2019t. If we want the public to accept these trade-offs, we must deliver these kinds of benefits.<\/p>\n The good news is that government recognises the opportunity to expand our AI sovereignty<\/a>.<\/p>\n But the challenge goes deeper than just policy. At the heart of this debate \u2014 on jobs, national security and wealth \u2014 sits a much bigger question. Do we dare to be the home of global ambition once again?<\/p>\n