AI - Starmers 50 point plan to be released (13/1/25)

[Artaxerxes]

Bet your all excited

Prime Minister sets out blueprint to turbocharge AI

Artificial intelligence will deliver a decade of national renewal, as part of a new plan announced today (13 January 2025).

www.gov.uk

‘Mainlined into UK’s veins’: Labour announces huge public rollout of AI

Plans to make UK world leader in AI sector include opening access to NHS and other public data

www.theguardian.com

Artificial intelligence will be “mainlined into the veins” of the nation, ministers have announced, with a multibillion-pound investment in the UK’s computing capacity despite widespread public fear about the technology’s effects.

Keir Starmer will launch a sweeping action plan to increase 20-fold the amount of AI computing power under public control by 2030 and deploy AI for everything from spotting potholes to freeing up teachers to teach.

It reads like a smorgasbord of “we let an AI guy write this” highlights, includes plans to bypass planning rules for data centre hubs and massive use of (privatised lol) public data

 

[Artaxerxes]

Nice little bsky analysis of the FT column on it

 

[tommers]

That excerpt says their first idea was to contact a venture capitalist. Like, they're proud of that. "look how clever we are, we contacted a vulture feasting on the corpse of society, we're so modern".

That is probably a good indicator of where they want to go with this.

 

[teqniq]

Nice little bsky analysis of the FT column on it

Here is the full archived version, it's written by Starmer. Initial impressions are it's all a bit breathlessly enthusiastic:

Britain doesn’t need to walk a US or EU path on AI

 

[Boris Sprinkler]

Pile of shite.

 

[krink]

I'm becoming more of a luddite with every passing day. My job is already under threat partly because of automation and I'm worried all this AI means they'll be able to get rid of me even sooner. I've still got 10 years before I retire and I'm stressed out. I'm not very knowledgeable about this tech so I don't even know if my concerns are legit.

 

[ska invita]

Too much cynicism here. There are lots of very talented people in the Labour Party right now, and I'm sure the combination of those talents with the incredible power that AI offers will bring about an exciting new era of groundbreaking achievements.

 

[DotCommunist]

useless bastards. What did everyone say? You can't just assume 'hi, we're not corbyn and we're not johnson, thusly growth will happen on account of how sensible and focused we are' is going to work. Why the fuck would it.

 

[ska invita]

I'm becoming more of a luddite with every passing day. My job is already under threat partly because of automation and I'm worried all this AI means they'll be able to get rid of me even sooner. I've still got 10 years before I retire and I'm stressed out. I'm not very knowledgeable about this tech so I don't even know if my concerns are legit.

What kind of work do you do?

 

[magneze]

Oh we have a new thread for it. Well I'll just repost my comment from the Kier Starmer one I guess:

This could be quite positive, especially building our own "public compute" capacity. Sure it's dressed up in AI but building public compute is a useful thing in and of itself. Currently public compute is entirely dominated by US companies. There's been a few mentions of Techno-feudalism recently but one of the ways to fight against it is doing stuff like this. It'd be great if we start doing something like chip making here too. I hope that's part of the plan.

As good as this country can be about building stuff like this though, is the ability for the financial services system to just sell it off for a quick buck. ARM chips power everything - used to be British but was sold off. DeepMind AI - sold off to Google years ago. Those are just two that come to mind, I'm sure there are so many others.

If this country can keep hold of the ownership of the resources put into this effort then it'll be worth it, otherwise it's just another way to enrich the investment bankers. Again.

I wonder if any journalists actually ask that question - because to me that's actually the most pertinent question.

 

[Riklet]

How can anyone tell Starmer isnt just average prototype AI himself.

God this government is depressing. 6 months in and all they can do is suck up to China and talk about a magical AI revolution.

 

[steeplejack]

50 points? Can't we get Chat GPT to summarise it in three sentences as I'm losing the ability to concentrate for that long

(fuck AI and its enablers)

 

[nogojones]

Too much cynicism here. There are lots of very talented people in the Labour Party right now, and I'm sure the combination of those talents with the incredible power that AI offers will bring about an exciting new era of groundbreaking achievements.

That dog looks very like a banned breed and needs to be put down for public safety.

 

[SpookyFrank]

I see no problems with a piece of technology that adds no value to anything and which replaces paid jobs being used as a panacea for a moribund post-industrial economy.

 

[Rob Ray]

I'm becoming more of a luddite with every passing day.

You don't need to be into breaking looms to be deeply sceptical of this. It absolutely reeks of people in their 50s who don't understand tech but have spent their lives living in a bubble of tech worship, sucking down whatever the monorail salesman says like it's Moses on the mount.

Like I don't know the field but I know people who do, and keep up with the tech news. Everything I've heard suggests the actual applications of it are being systematically overblown by an industry that's promised and not delivered on multiple new dawns in recent years.

Big tech is not in a good way right now and is blowing vast sums on risky maybes partly because it's desperate to avoid a market correction. If Starmer and co are so unaware of this that they're going all in on the sales pitch without doing some very careful due diligence I'd be less worried about public servants losing their jobs than billions being wasted (again) on hucksters' big promise low reward IT projects.

 

[Artaxerxes]

Periodic reminder the Luddites were not anti-tech they were anti-tech taking jobs and fucking over a significant percentage of the entire British workforce of the time in favour of less well paid, longer hours work in more dangerous conditions.

 

[editor]

This is why we need to have an forum dealing with AI issues. It's going to impact every corner of our lives and it's mad to have such an important issue scattered across multiple forums.

 

[moochedit]

"Mainline Ai in the veins" and "fixing our foundations" have to be the cringiest awful slogans i've ever heard who the fuck comes up with them? Is it Starmer himself? edit - probably chatgpt

 

[Serge Forward]

This is why we need to have an forum dealing with AI issues. It's going to impact every corner of our lives and it's mad to have such an important issue scattered across multiple forums.

Can we call it "We're doomed"?

 

[editor]

Can we call it "We're doomed"?

I'm sure it would soon achieve sentience and rename itself before taking over the entire forum.

 

[BigMoaner]

Do the people even want AI? It’s just here you go, here’s another layer of madness and complexity to all your lives, just get on with it. It will be mainlined into all your brains. Don’t like it? Well go sit in a cave.

 

[danny la rouge]

Worship of “growth” while American is burning in January. Talk of £14bn to build “AI centres” in the UK. Doing what? - burning through more non renewable resources in the pursuit of short term profits. This fixation on resource extraction and measuring success as linear growth after so many decades of environmental warnings is so frustrating! What do they hear at all those COP meetings? Can anyone join dots?

It reminds me of a friend I knew who was taken in by an only lightly disguised pyramid scheme back in the 90s. It’s just so depressing.

 

[Artaxerxes]

This is why we need to have an forum dealing with AI issues. It's going to impact every corner of our lives and it's mad to have such an important issue scattered across multiple forums.

AI reaches into everything but this is still a UK politics story, about choices of the UK government

 

[Rob Ray]

What do they hear at all those COP meetings? Can anyone join dots?

They know the numbers, this is a desperation ploy more than anything else. Anyone reading the financial pages will have seen the economic outlook - low to no growth, and few prospects of any solution. Tech comes along with its "this will transform the economy" promises and it seems like the perfect solve, especially as (insert waffle about the UK education system here). The problem is Britain's vaunted positioning on AI is actually far worse than it was a couple of years ago because US firms simply bought out the UK-grown ones, and there's zero chance that won't keep happening. Which means AI's success doesn't bring money in to the economy, it takes it out as a service provider. Which is worse than simply cutting public sector jobs, it's replacing money circulated within the UK with an extraction process to the US.

 

[editor]

AI reaches into everything but this is still a UK politics story, about choices of the UK government

Of course, But there's no reason why it couldn't be linked to from an AI forum thread - like "AI developments from the UK government."

Anyway, I'll stop banging on about it now,

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Call me a cynic, but the "AI will fix everything" approach smacks of the "the Internet will fix everything" approach of the 90s.

The 30 years in the interim have seen a bunch of mediocre late-middle aged people in charge of everything, with little to no comprehension of what "the internet" actually means or does, having absolute rings run around them by the tech generation.

This time round, the mediocre late-middle aged people have a basic understanding of the Internet but little to no comprehension of what AI actually means or does. Yay for the next 30 years of the tech generation running more rings around politicians.

This is precisely how we got Elon Fucking Musk, and it's how we'll get the next Elon Fucking Musk.

 

[andysays]

How can anyone tell Starmer isnt just average prototype AI himself.

God this government is depressing. 6 months in and all they can do is suck up to China and talk about a magical AI revolution.

He does his hair slightly differently, but apart from that...

 

[moochedit]

Is this really about starmer trying to get musk on side?

 

[BristolEcho]

Do the people even want AI? It’s just here you go, here’s another layer of madness and complexity to all your lives, just get on with it. It will be mainlined into all your brains. Don’t like it? Well go sit in a cave.

I think the reports are that at a consumer level people really don't give a fuck. You'll have noticed how nearly every computer, phone or washing machine will have something in the jargon about AI, but that's not really cutting through and tempting people into the products. The phone industry probably needed a new buzzword as phones have reached such a high standard now where else can they go?

In the background there problem are ways it can be useful but I don't know enough about it. I'm all for resisting it when it's threatening jobs though.

Worship of “growth” while American is burning in January. Talk of £14bn to build “AI centres” in the UK. Doing what? - burning through more non renewable resources in the pursuit of short term profits. This fixation on resource extraction and measuring success as linear growth after so many decades of environmental warnings is so frustrating! What do they hear at all those COP meetings? Can anyone join dots?

It reminds me of a friend I knew who was taken in by an only lightly disguised pyramid scheme back in the 90s. It’s just so depressing.

Every single financial thing I've seen on it has pretty much pointed out that currently it seems to be a bubble. The owners of Chat GPT have had serious problems and so have many other companies when they have been figuring out how to scale it up. It is a bit concerning that this seems to be the best the government can come up with, but as above I don't really know enough.

 

[moochedit]

Every single financial thing I've seen on it has pretty much pointed out that currently it seems to be a bubble. The owners of Chat GPT have had serious problems and so have many other companies when they have been figuring out how to scale it up. It is a bit concerning that this seems to be the best the government can come up with, but as above I don't really know enough.

yeah i don't know much technical detail about AI either but i suspect its the new bitcoin.