The British government is investing £500 million ($626 million) to provide researchers and local organizations with the computing power needed for artificial intelligence projects.
Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt announced the investment in a speech to MPs. In his speech, Hunt outlined five new research initiatives that the government plans to launch as part of a £2.5 billion ($3.1 billion) national quantitative strategy.
Building large-scale quantum computer networks is one of the goals of this strategy. The UK plans to spend £500 million of public money over the next two years to improve AI computing capabilities.
This commitment brings the UK government's planned investments in this sector to more than £1.5 billion. The equipment the government plans to purchase will be used by organizations such as scientists and machine learning experts, as well as AI startups.
As part of this programme, the UK government is running an AI supercomputer at the University of Bristol. The system includes thousands of GPUs, among other things, to develop large language models.
In his speech, Hunt revealed new details of the UK's national quantum strategy. As part of this strategy, officials plan to launch five new research projects, each prioritizing a different set of technologies.
The goal of the British initiative is to use quantum computers that can perform a trillion calculations. Officials hope to use these devices to perform calculations that traditional computers cannot do.
Quantum computing is expected to bring significant benefits in at least six areas: healthcare, finance, transportation, defence, energy, and manufacturing.
The plan will be implemented gradually, with officials hoping to deploy devices capable of performing 10 million computing operations by 2028, increasing this number to 10 billion computing operations by 2032, and then reaching the project's target end of 2035 billion operations.
In a parallel research project, scientists are working on developing a network to connect multiple quantum processors with the aim of facilitating the flow of data between quantum processors in different data centers. Officials have set several other goals for the project, including exploring ways to commercialize quantum networking technology.
The UK government also plans to invest in three additional research projects as part of the programme.
These projects focus on technologies such as quantum sensors, which use quantum mechanical phenomena to collect more accurate environmental data than traditional sensors. The British government plans to use this technology in air navigation, for example.