Britain has officially brought online its most powerful supercomputer, Isambard-AI, signalling a major acceleration in the government's ambitious drive to bolster artificial intelligence research nationwide.
Technology Secretary Peter Kyle activated the Isambard-AI machine in Bristol on Thursday. Ministers assert this move will significantly aid the UK in developing new medical cures and innovative tools to reduce emissions.
The government has committed £1 billion to expand Britain’s compute capacity by 20-fold by 2030. This includes establishing a series of AI "growth zones" designed to expedite planning approvals for new data centres. One such zone will be in Scotland, where Chancellor Rachel Reeves has confirmed £750 million will fund another supercomputer in Edinburgh, with a further one planned for Wales.
Alongside an existing supercomputer in Cambridge, Isambard-AI is projected to process in a single second "what it would take the entire global population 80 years to achieve," according to government statements. Businesses and scientists are expected to leverage these systems to process the vast data required to train and build AI models, facilitating new drug discoveries and breakthroughs in climate change technology. Researchers at the University of Liverpool are already utilising the machine to analyse tens of millions of chemical combinations, aiming to find methods to decarbonise British industry.
These initiatives form part of the new Compute Roadmap, a strategy aimed at reducing reliance on foreign processing power and transforming the UK’s public compute capacity. By 2030, the government anticipates this capacity will reach 420 AI exaFLOP – an equivalent of one billion people spending 13,316 years to achieve what the system can do in one second.
To underpin these plans, a diverse group of researchers, academics, and tech leaders has been convened to develop an AI science strategy, slated for publication in the autumn. This group includes Google DeepMind vice-president Pushmeet Kohli, Royal Society vice-president Alison Noble, and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council chairwoman Charlotte Deane.
Ms Reeves stated the plans would "transform our public services, drive innovation and fuel economic growth that puts money in people’s pockets." Mr Kyle added that they would "put a rocket under our brilliant researchers, scientists and engineers – giving them the tools they need to make Britain the best place to do their work."
