“This investment will make sure Britain’s scientific talent have the tools they need to make the most advanced models of AI safe.”~ Rishi Sunak.
The United Kingdom (UK) announced, in the AI safety summit, an increase in funding for two supercomputers dedicated to supporting research into ensuring advanced artificial intelligence models are secure.
The government has raised the investment for the ‘AI Research Resource’ to 300 million pounds (equivalent to $363.57 million), a substantial increase from the 100 million pounds initially declared. This announcement was made during an AI safety summit focused on establishing a secure path for the swiftly progressing technology.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak shared on social media platform X, “Frontier AI models are becoming exponentially more powerful. This investment will make sure Britain’s scientific talent have the tools they need to make the most advanced models of AI safe.”
The UK revealed the introduction of two supercomputers, situated in Cambridge and Bristol. These will offer researchers computational capabilities exceeding the current capacity of the UK’s largest public AI computing resources by more than thirtyfold.
Scheduled to be operational by next summer, these supercomputers will scrutinize advanced AI models for safety verifications and propel innovations in areas like pharmaceuticals and sustainable energy, according to the government.
The Bristol-based supercomputer, named ‘Isambard-AI’, will integrate 5,000 cutting-edge AI chips from Nvidia in a system constructed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The ‘Dawn’ supercomputer in Cambridge will be implemented through a collaboration with Dell and UK SME (Small to medium sized enterprise) StackHPC, and it will be powered by over 1,000 Intel chips, as disclosed by the UK.
