[HN Gopher] The UK will spend PS100M to develop its own 'soverei...
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The UK will spend PS100M to develop its own 'sovereign' AI
Author : atlasunshrugged
Score : 66 points
Date : 2023-04-25 14:28 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.engadget.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.engadget.com)
| corobo wrote:
| The UK will give PS100M to an MP's spouse
|
| Give it a few weeks and we'll find out which one I imagine
| [deleted]
| shaunxcode wrote:
| capita
| buro9 wrote:
| They're 25 days late with this announcement, which is also about
| right for the UK gov.
| notahacker wrote:
| 'Sovereign AI' does sound like a phrase that ChatGPT might come
| up with if you asked it to make up an article about Brexit and
| AI. Either ChatGPT or one of dozens of websites trying to be a
| British version of the Onion...
| SilverBirch wrote:
| The key problem the UK is facing is that a load of good
| investment ideas get announced and then proceed to spend decades
| drowning in red tape. In order to overcome this you need to
| announce some initiatives and then ensure over the next 5 years
| that they really deliver. But we're 13 years in Tory rule and
| there's going to be an election next year, so there's literally
| no chance of this being a success. Even back in 2019 when the
| levelling up stuff was happening it was like "Um, we're going to
| show some results in 2030" and it's like... well, you're not
| going to _be here_ in 2030, so it 's kind of academic, and the
| stuff you started in 2010 that should be paying off now? You
| massively cut capital spending so there _is_ no pay off now.
| SideburnsOfDoom wrote:
| > The key problem the UK is facing is that a load of good
| investment ideas get announced and then proceed to spend
| decades drowning in red tape.
|
| You make it sound like the attempt is valiantly made, but "red
| tape" is the sole reason that holds it back.
|
| More often with this government, the announcement is the whole
| thing, there's no desire to follow though or take action, just
| get good headlines. And the mythical "red tape" is a scapegoat.
| Standards, i.e. "more red tape" would e.g. have saved lives in
| Grenfell tower.
| kmlx wrote:
| > The key problem the UK is facing is that a load of good
| investment ideas get announced and then proceed to spend
| decades drowning in red tape.
|
| you just described most of the western world :)
| permo-w wrote:
| this is a narrative pushed for the sake of vested interests
| who would rather these things be privately owned
|
| democratic governments are perfectly capable of developing
| new technologies and do so all the time. the issue is the
| level of investment and public interest, not anything else
| lhnz wrote:
| It'd be more sensible to invest this money directly into Google
| DeepMind, which already exists and is based in London.
| hammyhavoc wrote:
| It's just not "sovereign" enough.
| cameronh90 wrote:
| Well it is a subsidiary of an American company...
| grumpymouse wrote:
| I think the point is to avoid a situation like with Uber
| (where investors subsidised Uber rides to try to destroy most
| of the world's taxi industry, then replace with Uber and
| gather all the profits for themselves).
|
| It's going to suck for the world in general if AI models
| destroy a lot of jobs but the productivity gains are all paid
| to overseas companies like OpenAI and Microsoft.
| shaftoe444 wrote:
| GB-T
| jonplackett wrote:
| It will be a special Brexit AI trained only on all the positive
| impacts of brexit.
|
| Training will take approximately 3 nano seconds but probably
| still cost most of the PS100 mil which will be spent only at
| companies owned by Tory MPs friends and with no prior experience
| in AI.
|
| (Sorry, just trying to cheer myself up. It's a hard time to be
| British at the moment)
| m3kw9 wrote:
| Lmao, someone being scammed
| tailspin2019 wrote:
| Why do I get the feeling that this will just be PS100m poured
| down the drain...
| js8 wrote:
| Good luck with that:
| https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/britain-in-crisi...
| kmlx wrote:
| lots of issues with that article, but the most obvious one are
| the graphs: OECD GDP data was misread and then they wrongly
| applied CER's doppelganger model.
|
| in reality UK GDP is about 6% higher than in Q2 16.
|
| i don't know why they do this kind of sloppy reporting, but
| they do have form. another priceless article about Germany
| itself: https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/inflation-
| bankr...
| etiennebausson wrote:
| Wow, that's a pretty depressing picture of the U.K. I know the
| situation over there is quite bad, but this was more extreme
| than what I expected.
| bogle wrote:
| "the country's representatives continue to put on a show of
| democracy week after week" - Der Spiegel. In so many ways
| (sigh).
| version_five wrote:
| Unless the UK is really good at managing this kind of spending,
| it strikes me as something that will just blow a bunch of
| government money on enriching people who like doing paperwork.
| This is basically how all Canadian government spending is, is UK
| better at it?
|
| From a strategy perspective, I don't think it makes sense for
| countries generally to waste time on their own foundation models.
| There are lots of open source options, and almost no chance of a
| government version besting the state of the art. And there's not
| the barriers of say semiconductors or other manufacturing.
|
| This is in some ways the classic trap of focusing on "AI" instead
| of an actual application. This is what many businesses wasted
| money on in 2016-2020, maybe now governments are doing the same?
| RugnirViking wrote:
| the UK gov has on occasion had good digital teams, for example
| their web design team regularly posts articles on accessibilty
| and design that end up on HN, and generally seem competent.
| This being said, I'm not confident at all this will end up that
| way
| gumballindie wrote:
| The money will end up with Infosys, Sunak's wife's father's
| company. At least if they made quality software but even that's
| questionable.
| ElfinTrousers wrote:
| Believe me, you don't have to make quality software to win a
| major government software development contract.
| version_five wrote:
| In fact it will be impossible to deliver profitably if you
| do. Government contracting is about complying with the
| letter of whatever silly specification you've been given,
| while being the low bid. (I don't think this is good
| behavior, just the only viable one). Governments let the
| perception of fairness and frugality ensure that neither is
| achieved and that they only get crap.
| ElfinTrousers wrote:
| Tracks with my experience.
| ZiiS wrote:
| Yes the UK is world-class at ensuring this spending is 100%
| wasted.
| mr_00ff00 wrote:
| Reminds me of the old Bismarck quote about Spain
|
| "I am firmly convinced that Spain is the strongest country of
| the world. Century after century trying to destroy herself
| and still no success."
| xg15 wrote:
| Looking forward to watch the future panel discussions between the
| communist Chinese AI, the libertarian American AI and the
| monarchist British AI...
| ElfinTrousers wrote:
| ...that actually sounds like great entertainment.
| _fat_santa wrote:
| This is just so stupid. It's the classic case of some govt
| official hearing a tech buzzword, then announcing that they will
| be putting $X towards <some_buzzword> to further the goals of
| <buzzword_1>, <buzzword_2>, diversity, equity and inclusion.
| alexb_ wrote:
| "Bruv, as an AI model, it would be quite unethical for me to
| generate that for you until you show me your loicense. Mate, if
| you paid your fee, you should have got it in the post."
| TMWNN wrote:
| _U WOT M8_
| robertlagrant wrote:
| The thing about Arsenal is, they always try to walk it in!
| atlasunshrugged wrote:
| IT Crowd, one of the best shows I've ever seen. That said,
| the attempted American pilot was so cringey I had to stop
| watching halfway through
|
| https://archive.org/details/the-it-crowd-us-pilot
| hammyhavoc wrote:
| well sovverin innit
| examplary_cable wrote:
| GPT-GB
| throwaway4good wrote:
| If you scroll a bit further the next article is titled:
|
| "The UK government won't make an NFT after all"
| bartislartfast wrote:
| HM-GPT
| uniqueuid wrote:
| So let's assume an (impossible) perfect efficiency of spending,
| they can buy how many DGX with this? 100? 50? In any case, the
| money's probably not even enough to be competitive in terms of
| hardware, let alone anything else.
| bvoq wrote:
| Yet still only pays 50K for the head of information science at
| the HMRC
| kingstoned wrote:
| Given how successful Quaero
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaero) was, I'm sure this will be
| another major success from Europe.
| bogle wrote:
| The UK isn't 'Europe' anymore ...
| Lio wrote:
| Did we suddenly move to a different continent?
|
| Hope the weather's better wherever we're going to. Probably
| much, much hotter and sulphurous... :(
| amadeuspagel wrote:
| If only it was this easy.
| naavis wrote:
| Not part of the European Union no, but definitely part of
| Europe as a geographical area. Unless you claim that Norway
| isn't part of Europe either?
| eunos wrote:
| ChatGPT but with British spellings you mean
| tonymillion wrote:
| Pleasant Conversation with sarcastic undertones AI
| fennecfoxy wrote:
| Lmao 900mPS is not enough for hardware and development required
| as well as running costs, not with the UK gov's glacial pace and
| inability to move into the modern world. This is just a way to
| funnel money out.
|
| As a Kiwi living in the UK for like 6 years now, the Brits' worst
| enemies are themselves; they're afraid of change, want everything
| to stay the same like the good old days and so vote for the same
| old idiots but complain when the leopards eat their face. Over
| and over again.
|
| History runs deep here and people hold onto things for far too
| long. Then again, I did come to Europe for the rich history, I
| just didn't think its inhabitants would be so bound by it.
| dukeyukey wrote:
| To be fair to the UK it's the third-largest tech market in the
| world, after the continental-scale superstates of the US and
| China.
| unmole wrote:
| > the third-largest tech market in the world
|
| Do you have a link handy?
| dukeyukey wrote:
| Here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-tech-sector-
| retains-1-...
|
| The UK is also third for tech VC investment, but sometimes
| even overtakes china: https://dealroom.co/guides/united-
| kingdom
|
| https://technation.io/news/uk-tech-q1-2022-investment-
| update...
| te_chris wrote:
| I feel like we're the same person (8 years for me though). But
| of course, this is by design and exactly how the most powerful
| people here want it.
|
| It's an endless struggle at the moment between love of our life
| in London and feeling of the creeping death of the UK at its
| own hands.
| fakedang wrote:
| I left the UK for exactly this reason. I love(d) London so
| much before - it's the city where I started my career, as a
| foreigner nonetheless, and it wholly adopted me as near equal
| citizen with open arms. Plus, being an Indian, it's one of
| the few places where I actually exercised my right to vote.
|
| But visiting back today, the decline in the country in just a
| span of a few years, it's simply unbearable to watch. The
| country is simply on a decline, in spite of some of the
| brightest minds in the EU and the world studying and working
| there.
|
| And London was supposed to be the city that dominated New
| York around 10-20 years ago.
| troad wrote:
| > Then again, I did come to Europe for the rich history, I just
| didn't think its inhabitants would be so bound by it.
|
| Europe is run as a continent-sized retirement home, by
| incompetent, hereditary elites who are utterly incapable of
| grappling with the fact that having a history is not a
| substitute for having an economy.
|
| I feel for the people of Europe; they deserve better. So many
| of the smart, lovely people you meet here are stuck on absurdly
| low salaries in countries without any obvious future other than
| managed decline. Instead of being offered a future, they're
| offered endless relitigation of the past.
| lawn wrote:
| > I feel for the people of Europe; they deserve better. So
| many of the smart, lovely people you meet here are stuck on
| absurdly low salaries in countries without any obvious future
| other than managed decline.
|
| That's funny, because I feel similar for people in the US.
|
| Sure, people in tech have high salaries, but then you have to
| deal with the insane health care, idiotic prison system and
| half the country supporting an openly fascist and lying
| president (among other things).
| troad wrote:
| > an openly fascist and lying president (among other
| things).
|
| Oh, have Georgia Meloni, Victor Orban and Recep Erdogan
| hopped over from Europe? Must have missed that.
| ChuckNorris89 wrote:
| Yeah this is the double standard here. Whenever US haters
| on HN compare the US to Europe they only compares it to
| France, Germany, Sweden, etc. to prove that the EU is a
| better place to live, but forget that the EU also has
| Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, etc.
| libs_subhuman wrote:
| [dead]
| j-krieger wrote:
| You don't really think Turkey or Hungary when you think
| of Europe.
| sideshowb wrote:
| And longer hours and a lot less holiday.
| courgette wrote:
| I earn roughly 4 times in the US what I would earn in France.
| Not a small difference.
|
| I'm still going back.
|
| Also, absurds costs of things in the US makes giant salary
| not that giant as soon as you get kids and plan to provide
| them with an educations.
|
| Regarding future, my very personal take is that European
| population will be vastly more resilient to what is coming.
| (TM)
|
| I'm concerned about the fabric of society itself in the US.
| You mention future, it's unclear what's in it for the USA.
| Europeans societies have been thought shit not that long ago
| and survived somewhat united.
|
| The US last crisis was at home was idk? the civil war?
|
| But i'm sure I'm being dramatic. None the less, it's jarring.
| I don't want to grow old here and have my kids growing up in
| a Us culture first.
|
| Again; my personal take. My goal was to shine some lights on
| the other side POV.
| ethanbond wrote:
| The US is in a perpetual state of internal turmoil. "The
| good ol' days" never existed. It's very likely the other
| side of the same "dynamism" coin that produces much of the
| innovation/growth/power that the US has accumulated.
|
| The Vietnam War was a domestic crisis that involved
| thousands of domestic terror bombings all across the
| country, for example.
| potbelly83 wrote:
| Yep people who think the US was once some stable well run
| country need a good history lesson. This comes from an
| immigrant to the US happy to grow old here.
| courgette wrote:
| Sure. This has been a shit show since inception.
|
| And just looking at any US city outskirts is telling.
|
| Also, let's remember the position of the US in both early
| WW1 and Ww2. Faschism & racism are not new additions.
|
| But is it getting better? How is the trend in regard
| metrics like Gini coefficient and wealth repartition?
|
| What is better before ? Yes, until the 80s, the IRS and
| middle class were still a thing.
|
| I wonders what will happen to channel future
| discontentments. What would be the outlets.
|
| My concern is that once it's become absolutely clear that
| upward mobility is broken for most, what will be the
| recourse of the folks left over in the dust?
| tomcam wrote:
| > thousands of domestic terror bombings all across the
| country
|
| The memory-holing of these bombings fascinates me.
| ls612 wrote:
| Leftist terror violence doesn't fit the narrative for
| today's elites.
| courgette wrote:
| Oh I remember when terrorist were white and either super
| Christian, or at least raise Christian.
|
| IRA of course, but also ETA or the Brigatte rosse in
| France, Spain and Italy.
|
| What does not fit the narrative ? I see that narrative
| popping back in French news today with protests against
| specific water collection stategies ( not the retirement
| stuff, other protests ) being labeled as "eco-terrorism".
|
| It looks that any resistance to the capitalism model of
| land & resource management will be labeled that way going
| forward ( in France. in the US I'm waiting to see what
| happen with cop city near Atlanta. As of now nobody heard
| of it )
| ls612 wrote:
| In the US the bombings and domestic terrorism and
| assassinations in the late 60s and 70s were generally
| done by left wing groups like SDS, weather underground,
| etc. I'm not as familiar with what happened in Europe
| around that time beyond the IRA.
| j-krieger wrote:
| I agree. For a country of patriots, the US has 0% of inner
| unity. To each their own is what most Americans seem to
| live by, and I'm sure 9/11 was the first and last time the
| country United.
| dekervin wrote:
| Your username is awesome. Also what made you go to the US?
| I am just curious
| courgette wrote:
| A woman, what else?
|
| A woman, and obtuse immigration laws. She was not able to
| stay longer in France. And long distance sucks.
| mytailorisrich wrote:
| But then you had to endure everyone calling you zucchini.
| tomcam wrote:
| > European population will be vastly more resilient to what
| is coming. (TM)
|
| Could be, considering how much the US pays in military
| protection for Europe (money I'd be happy to stop spending)
| NicoJuicy wrote:
| Europe buys US military too, i wouldn't underestimate the
| costs of the f-35 for each country in Europe :)
|
| It's part buying military assets, but it's also the
| protection that comes with it.
| courgette wrote:
| I was appalled when sarkozy put France back in NATO, if
| that make you feel better.
|
| Even in the current geopolitical context I would
| preferred the US to get out of our hairs. That would
| probably smack some sense into EU in regards to a shared
| defense.
|
| Weirdly enough, none of our politicians, or yours except
| trump, seems to be super into the idea. I guess NATO
| yield some dividends, too?
|
| But I was more thinking at resilient community of
| civilians. Living in village / small town that are
| livable without that much inputs from the "grid" and
| without driving miles and miles( because they were build
| before that support system even existed )
|
| Also, communities where living together is seen as
| normal, not some hippie or comunist idea.
|
| As a result, elder citizen can lives longer there without
| need for adhoc care. It's cheaper to raise kids. Food is
| cheaper and of better quality. ( farmer markets are where
| poor people buy food, for instance, not a fancy place for
| organic ware )
|
| My observations are of rural US and rural France. Of
| course I'm biased.
| mytailorisrich wrote:
| The US do not spend this out of their generous hearts.
| This buys them power and control over Europe. They do
| that for themselves (of course, all countries look after
| themselves)
| spyremeown wrote:
| >So many of the smart, lovely people you meet here are stuck
| on absurdly low salaries
|
| Let me tell you about third world countries...
| PH01 wrote:
| > I feel for the people of Europe; they deserve better. So
| many of the smart, lovely people you meet here are stuck on
| absurdly low salaries in countries without any obvious future
| other than managed decline. Instead of being offered a
| future, they're offered endless relitigation of the past.
|
| Most of the Europeans I know leave the US as soon as they
| have kids. Everyone seems to prefer managed decline rather
| than having their kids attend lessons on what to do if a man
| with a gun comes into school.
| j-krieger wrote:
| Agreed. There is no real discourse on guns in the US. It's
| not maniacs, mental health or politics. It's guns.
|
| Every discussion on the gun problem leads to vague mentions
| of better mental health or going back to communal
| communities. Country's with far cheaper healthcare can't
| solve the mental illness problem, only our lunatics have
| can't walk into a store and buy a firearm.
| emptyfile wrote:
| [dead]
| version_five wrote:
| My take is that a lot of Europe has not gone for growth-at-
| all-cost, in particular with immigration, and so has offset
| lower salaries with more manageable social programs and lower
| cost of living generally. There are downsides, but "managed
| decline" is not necessarily a bad thing. I think western
| europe is actually going to become an increasingly popular
| destination for people leaving US + commonwealth countries.
| davidjones332 wrote:
| USA bros shouting about the money but they seem angry... 60
| hours must be a lot to endure I feel sorry for you... In
| Europe as you know we have the Mediterranean lifestyle and a
| 32 hour work week... yet we get to enjoy all of the
| technological innovations and 21st century lifestyle that you
| do
| ojhughes wrote:
| Speak for yourself, everyone I know here is quite happy on
| their "low salaries" and wouldn't move to the US
| hot_gril wrote:
| I'm reading this as, I should develop some kind of "sovereign"
| tech or consultancy company then rake in tons of govt contracts
| like this.
| christkv wrote:
| How long before someone breaches open ai and steals their model.
| It's not like it's a lot of data but probably the highest value
| per byte in existence.
| seanhunter wrote:
| On the one hand it will probably siphon most of that money either
| to Infosys (PM's wife's family) or to other relatives of MPs and
| ministers. Corruption is a very serious problem in the UK at the
| moment.
|
| On the other hand it will be the only possible source for
| answering prompts such as:
|
| 1) I am in Devon but am having tea and scones with a friend from
| Cornwall. I want to be polite. Should I put jam on first or cream
| on first?
|
| 2) Rewrite the Joe Pesci "How am I funny?" speech from Goodfellas
| in the style of Brian Aldridge from "The Archers"
|
| 3) Explain general relativity to me in the style of a boilermaker
| from Glasgow.
|
| 4) Calculate the cosine distance between the following Welsh
| phrases after lemmatization
|
| 5) Write 500 words on the topic "Grant Shaps. Why (oh why oh
| why)?"
|
| etc.
|
| On balance it's 100m well spent.
| majikaja wrote:
| To the average person I think this announcement sounds better
| than just inviting over a Microsoft sales rep to meet with the
| government like Japan did.
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