The government has unveiled a package of new initiatives aimed at helping open-source AI developers scale their projects, alongside plans for a data centre design challenge and new guidance on workplace robotics.
The announcements were made by AI minister Kanishka Narayan during a keynote speech at the AI Summit at London Tech Week.
At the centre of the package is a new Open-Source AI Builder Fund, which will provide more than £500,000 worth of computing power to developers working on AI projects. The support includes 160,000 GPU hours from the UK’s AI Research Resource, which the government said will enable teams to move from prototype development to deploying public-facing AI tools.
The government has also launched an Open-Source AI Builder Mentoring Scheme, which will connect successful developers with experts from the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (i.AI), the government’s in-house AI team.
Additionally, a new Open-Source AI Dev Board will give ten UK-based developers under the age of 30 the opportunity to help shape government thinking on AI through a series of roundtable discussions.
The measures follow a Hack for Impact hackathon organised by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and NVIDIA. The event brought together hundreds of developers to build open-source AI applications using data from the City of London.
Projects highlighted by the government include Codeborough, which helps residents locate local services such as libraries, public toilets and polling stations; WaitWise, which supports NHS patients on waiting lists by identifying gaps in care and generating follow-up communications; Stella, which helps small businesses identify grants and business rates relief; and NeMo-Ray, which uses satellite connectivity to maintain emergency communications when mobile networks fail.
“From the World Wide Web to AlphaFold, Britain has always chosen to open up new technologies, not close them down,” Narayan said. “The best AI tools in the world won’t be built behind closed doors by a handful of companies.
“They’ll be built by people who ship code, share it, and let others make it better.
Alongside the support for developers, the government announced a new partnership with the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to launch a data centre design competition.
The RIBA x DSIT Data Centre Design Challenge will invite architects, engineers, designers and local communities to develop new approaches to data centre construction. The initiative aims to improve sustainability, community engagement and the appearance of facilities as demand for AI infrastructure continues to grow.
The government also revealed a new robotics partnership involving the Regulatory Innovation Office and the Health and Safety Executive. The organisations will work with industry to provide regulatory clarity around collaborative robots, including the first joint guidance on how robots can operate safely alongside human workers.
On Tuesday, the government announced the launch of an advisory sandbox designed to help organisations deploy AI products within existing regulatory requirements.
