UKAI, the trade body for more than 270 British AI businesses, is calling for a dedicated sovereign AI action plan to save the UK from dependency on foreign tech giants.

The trade body said it wants to see next week’s budget include a plan for AI sovereignty amidst lingering geopolitical uncertainty and in the wake of recent cloud outages.

“Piecemeal funding announcements are tactical at best, and we need detailed strategy about how the country will build and design a new wave of AI tools to support critical national infrastructure,” said Charlotte Wilson, head of enterprise at Check Point.

“This should be written into the defense budget, especially with geopolitical uncertainty and hostile foreign states bombarding the country with increasingly malicious attacks.”

The government has made a number of moves aimed at improving the UK’s AI sector, including efforts toward greater sovereignty.

In summer 2024, it launched an AI Opportunities Action Plan, followed earlier this year by a £500 million Sovereign AI fund aimed at boosting support for domestic AI companies. A further £60 million for the program was pledged last week.

Earlier this summer, it unveiled an AI Hardware Plan designed to give a helping hand to home-grown AI chip firms. However, UKAI said that while all three are valuable initiatives, they need to be merged into one overarching strategy.

“On their own, they are building blocks. Joined up as a strategy, they would be transformative,” said Flagg.

AI sovereignty in the spotlight

UKAI joins a number of industry associations calling for a more aligned approach to AI sovereignty. Just last week, a new industry taskforce, Project Sovereign AI Leadership (SAIL), called for a clear definition of sovereign AI.

This would entail creating a workload classification framework that grades sovereignty across each layer of the stack – infrastructure, including data centers, compute and networks, data, models and applications, and workloads.

In July this year, the Council for Science and Technology (CST) called on the government to develop a UK AI Sovereignty Plan, set up clear governance and coordination for AI sovereignty choices, and increase investment in long-term domestic AI capability.

“The stakes could not be higher. Without immediate action, Britain risks becoming a vassal state, dependent on countries that control the AI infrastructure our economy increasingly relies on. We have the entrepreneurs, the research and the talent to compete, but they are fragmented and disconnected,” said UKAI CEO Tim Flagg.

“Businesses are calling for action and the government has signalled its intent, yet nothing concrete has followed. Next week’s Budget is the moment to act. We urge the Chancellor to fund a Sovereign AI strategy and secure the UK’s place as a world leader in AI, rather than leave our future in other countries’ hands.”

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