Responding to the government’s announcement of a new AI Opportunities Action Plan on Monday 13 January, Dr Tim Bradshaw, Chief Executive of the Russell Group, said:

“We are pleased to see today’s AI Opportunities Action Plan includes a focus on building the UK’s compute capacity – including a welcome boost to the UK’s processing power via a new supercomputer – and removing barriers to AI infrastructure planning.

“Through multi-disciplinary expertise, a pipeline of academic talent and well-established industry partnerships, research-intensive universities are already harnessing AI technologies for public good and attracting significant external investment.

“However, for some time the UK has been lacking a clear strategy on AI, leaving us vulnerable to falling further behind our global competitors. We therefore welcome this new, ambitious plan to maximise the potential benefits of AI that could boost productivity, improve public services and drive economic growth”.