Not Washington, not Beijing

Good morning and happy birthday to my mum (who doesn't read this newsletter). Happy St Patricks's Day to everyone else.

Happening Today 🗓️

Don't skip it: Chancellor Rachel Reeves has a raft of announcements timed for her Mais Lecture at 1:30pm covering AI, quantum, the Ox-Cam corridor and closer ties with Europe. Lots more below.

Why the UK? AI minister Kanishka Narayan is selling the UK as an investment location at Nvidia GTC at 10am. He'll talk about how AI Growth Zones will "fast-track" data centre development and the Sovereign AI Unit’s plans.

In Parliament: MPs quiz science minister Patrick Vallance about tech sovereignty, diplomacy and research funding cuts at 1:30pm. In the Lords, peers continue their inquiry into AI personalised medicines at 10:15am.

News In Brief 🩳

Scaling: Nscale has bought a massive compute campus in West Virginia and agreed with Microsoft to deliver 1.35 GW of AI compute from it.

Greens lean in: The Green Party wants ministers to stop "kicking the can down the road" on AI and copyright. Deputy leader Rachel Millward said by doing so the government was "effectively handing power to a small number of US Big Tech firms".

💡 Join our online Q&A this Thursday at 10am, sponsored by RELX, to hear from an expert panel on the AI-Copyright update.

Not Washington, not Beijing

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will today put AI and a "strategic state" at the heart of her economic vision, while also taking a swipe at both Silicon Valley billionaires and Chinese state capitalism. The numbers, however, deserve a closer look.

Reeves has a raft of announcements for this afternoon's Mais Lecture and will claim that the UK will "win" the AI adoption race, although none of the funding appears to be for AI adoption. The announcements include:

-An extra £1 billion to buy quantum computers over the next decade.

-A "Olympics-style regeneration" for the Ox-Cam corridor, delivered through a government-backed development firm.

-An update on AI Growth Labs and wider plans for AI adoption.

Not that we're counting: The Treasury has inflated the funding in today's news from £1 billion to £2.5 billion by adding the Sovereign AI Unit's £500m and the £1 billion announced last year for quantum. But the more interesting stuff is Reeves' framing rather than the Treasury's maths.

On AI, she'll say: 

“The choice is this: we can bury our heads in the sand and leave it to other countries - whose values may differ from ours - to shape and own this technology. We can leave it to the market alone, and let the balance of risk and reward be determined by a super-wealthy few. Or we can chart our own course."

Back to 'securonomics': Although not naming them, she views AI as too important to be left to US billionaires or the Chinese state to dominate and reckons the UK can find a third way between the two. She will also argue that Britain has the power to shape its future more widely, while calling for closer ties with the EU. "Our method is stability, investment and reform – through an active and strategic state," she'll say.

AI legislation (sort of): Reeves will also mention AI Growth Labs, according to two people familiar with her speech. It follows a call for evidence at the end of last year which looked at how to give ministers the power to remove rules to create AI testbeds, so-called "sandboxes" where companies can develop AI products without worrying about regulation. But they will need primary legislation, meaning there should be something in the next King's Speech.

Sell or else: Reeves will also build on previous pledges to make the area between Oxford and Cambridge the "Silicon Valley of Europe", by forcing landowners to sell up through compulsory purchase powers, the FT reports.

Keep up: The government announced yesterday it is investing £45 million in a 1.4MW supercomputer at the AI Growth Zone in Culham, Oxfordshire, to work on fusion energy. Named ‘Sunrise’, it should be in operation in June this year and will be the world’s most powerful supercomputer dedicated to fusion energy. 

Competing visions

Tech secretary Liz Kendall and Reform's policy chief Zia Yusuf offered two very political visions of AI at yesterday's techUK policy conference.

Tech for all: Kendall contrasted the optimism of the tech industry with public fear about safety and job displacement. "The challenge we have isn't a technical challenge, it is a challenge to show that we can make tech work for all," she said. Kendall said she believed in an "active" Labour government to make that happen, but oddly was not asked about AI and Copyright despite an update coming on that tomorrow.

Tech or die: Reform's Zia Yusuf, meanwhile, framed AI in stark national security terms, arguing the UK was "unilaterally disarming" through its high energy costs. He warned Britain would become a "vassal state to the Chinese Communist Party" in 20 years if it didn't change course. His main target was the net-zero policies under Ed Miliband and before that, the Conservatives.

Thanks but no thanks: In a short interview with me afterwards, he called for the government to own and manage more compute capacity, he said: "We want to feel comfortable that no foreign nation could hobble our ability to run those data centres." He added: "I love the Americans... but I don't want Britain to be reliant on any other country for our national security."

Happy days: The SNP's Kate Forbes brought strong last day of school vibes in her appearance (she's stepping down in a few days). Forbes popped in from her party's London conference which was being held on the floor below to talk about how the SNP had supported tech in Scotland.

Please help: The Conservatives' Ben Spencer, meanwhile, said he had "no idea" what workforce disruption AI would cause and said he wanted help from the tech industry on that. He was, however, more convinced about the need to curb social media access for under-16s and said it would need a standalone bill, rather than the government's approach of adding amendments to existing bills.

Happy to clarify: Yesterday's edition said the new Data Centre APPG represented developers. It is, however, aiming to bring together parliamentarians and people across the data centre industry.

Thanks for reading, back in your inbox tomorrow.

Tom