Britain risks becoming a vassal state, says AI body

Britain will be reduced to a vassal state without a dedicated sovereign artificial intelligence plan, and the funding for one should be written into the defence budget, according to UKAI, the trade association for the British AI economy.

The group, which represents more than two hundred and seventy businesses, issued the warning as a Google Cloud outage hit banks, businesses and courts across the country, and called on the Chancellor to ringfence money for a sovereign AI roadmap in this week’s Budget.

Charlotte Wilson, head of enterprise at Check Point, said: “Without a dedicated Sovereign plan in place, the UK will continue to be at the mercy of overseas tech firms, subjected to damaging outages and major cyber security scares.

“Inconsistency on global governance, policies and access will be a major issue, especially with AI impacting the UK jobs market.

“Piecemeal funding announcements are tactical at best, and we need detailed strategy about how the country will build and design a new wave of AI tools to support critical national infrastructure. This should be written into the defence budget, especially with geopolitical uncertainty and hostile foreign states bombarding the country with increasingly malicious attacks.”

Tim Flagg, chief executive of UKAI, said: “The UK has some of the world’s best AI companies, yet no Sovereign AI strategy to help them thrive. The AI Opportunities Action Plan, the Sovereign AI Fund and the AI Hardware Plan are all welcome steps, but nothing joins them together. On their own, they are building blocks. Joined up as a strategy, they would be transformative.

“The stakes could not be higher. Without immediate action, Britain risks becoming a vassal state, dependent on countries that control the AI infrastructure our economy increasingly relies on. We have the entrepreneurs, the research and the talent to compete, but they are fragmented and disconnected. The Government can change that by uniting and championing British AI businesses and reforming public procurement, so that taxpayer money builds British growth and British jobs.

“Businesses are calling for action and the Government has signalled its intent, yet nothing concrete has followed. Next week’s Budget is the moment to act. We urge the Chancellor to fund a Sovereign AI strategy and secure the UK’s place as a world leader in AI, rather than leave our future in other countries’ hands.”

The defence relevance of the argument has been made by ministers themselves. The Defence Investment Plan commits up to £1.8 billion to the Digital Targeting Web over four years, and Luke Pollard told Parliament last week that £266 million has been allocated for this financial year, £352 million for 2027-28 and £1,213 million for the two years after that, with the profile still being refined in the current planning round.

UKAI will hold a Sovereign AI Summit at The Oval in London on 2 November, bringing together AI businesses, investors, policymakers and public sector buyers, and intends to produce a Sovereign AI Compact setting out proposed commitments for government and industry.