In the United Kingdom, the local government has canceled computer infrastructure projects worth 1.3 billion pounds ($1.7 billion).

The mentioned decision is a negative factor in terms of the prospects for London to achieve the status of a world leader in the field of artificial intelligence.

A government spokesperson, while talking to media representatives, confirmed the information that two major taxpayer-funded spending commitments totaling 1.3 billion pounds have been canceled. In this context, it was also noted that the relevant decision was taken to prioritize other fiscal plans.

The sum of 500 million pounds was pledged last year by the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, for the AI Research Resource. In this case, it implies an initiative to develop the country’s computing infrastructure.

Also last year, commitments in the amount of 800 million pounds were announced. These funds were intended to finance the development of a new generation exascale computer capable of performing 1 trillion calculations per second at the University of Edinburgh.

The mentioned initiatives were intended to enhance the United Kingdom’s ability to build high-performance infrastructure that can run advanced artificial intelligence models that consume a lot of power and require huge amounts of training data.

The new Labour government of the United Kingdom has canceled the specified initiatives.

A spokesperson for the UK’s Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology at the same time, in a comment to the media, noted the commitment of the authorities to building a technological infrastructure that will ensure growth and new opportunities for all residents of the country.

As we have reported earlier, UK Startup Fractile Raises $15 Million.