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Cycling back from the Grand Palais, Paris’s streets were gridlocked thanks to road closures caused by the AI Summit. The disruption, attendees joked, was mimicking what’s to come with AI.

The “Copyright & AI: What’s at Stake?” webinar explored the evolving challenges surrounding copyright law, artificial intelligence and the creative industries in the UK. Experts Thangam Debbonaire and Sir Robert Buckland KBE, KC discussed the immense economic and cultural importance of the UK’s creative sector, which contributes £125 billion to the economy and enhances the country’s global influence. However, a significant portion of the industry consists of self-employed creators and small businesses who lack the legal and financial resources to challenge global tech giants. The discussion emphasised that copyright law has long served as a fundamental tool to protect these creators, ensuring they are compensated when their work is used by others.

The “Leading the Future: Developing the UK’s AI-Ready Workforce” roundtable, hosted by UKAI and Bradley Thomas MP at the House of Commons, brought together key stakeholders to discuss strategies for equipping the UK workforce with the right AI skills.

UKAI’s CEO was quoted by the BBC. Tim Flagg welcomed the Action Plan, but highlighted that it was very narrow in scope and pointed out that the AI sector is made up of many different types of business beyond just tech-businesses. 

The UK Government has announced that the AI Opportunities Action Plan is coming, and when it arrives I am sure that there will be a lot of opinions on whether it is good, or bad and on what it misses, and hopefully what it gets right. Over the last few months UKAI has been talking to members, businesses across the UK in the AI sector, to understand what they care about most.

We’ve analysed all of the major news stories in December 2024. You can find a list with links of the major stories, government announcements, research reports and more on this page. Here are some of the main themes.

Marking the next stage of its growth, UKAI is proud to announce the appointment of three founding members to its Advisory Board; former Shadow Secretary of State, Thangam Debbonaire, former Minister of State for AI, Matt Warman and digital expert Amir Malik. These well known figures from across the political spectrum, bring significant expertise and extensive networks in the AI sector and across government, ensuring that UKAI’s work is guided by strategic insight and informed by deep connections across policy and industry. The Advisory Board will play a crucial role in shaping UKAI’s vision, advising its executive team and amplifying its impact as it champions the UK’s AI sector. The current executive team comprises co-founders, Tim Flagg, Ben Howlett and Dominic Endicott who bring together the business, government and investor communities, respectively. 

“Overall, we welcome the £20 billion investment in the ‘growth industries of the future’ and the increased investment in education and apprenticeships, but it was disappointing not to have more detail about how this investment will support the Government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan. Regional investment is vital to put the AI sector at the heart of the future economic growth and social progress of the UK, but there was surprisingly little new investment in regional clusters, developing the physical and social infrastructure that is required.”

UKAI welcomes yesterday’s announcement of a further £6.3 billion investment to build data centres across the UK from ServiceNow, CyrusOne, CloudHQ,CoreWeave. This follows the news back in April of Blackstone’s investment of £10 billion to build one of Europe’s largest data centres in Blyth and Amazon’s announcement in September that they will be investing £8 billion. These investments are testament to the hard work of successive governments in setting out the business case for the UK as a global leader in technological innovation, now and into the future.

Creating new legislation is one of the key levers that governments have to deliver their strategic plans. Whilst there are a number of different types of new legislation, businesses are often concerned when they hear about new regulations. The General Data Protection Regulation was a case in point as it required businesses to comply with a dizzying list of new regulations. Whilst larger businesses were able to hire teams of lawyers to advise them on GDPR compliance, smaller businesses struggled. SMEs have less money, less time and fewer resources and new legislation can cause significant friction, draining those precious resources and hindering growth.

The announcement that Blackstone, a leading US investment firm, will invest £10bn to build a cutting-edge AI datacentre in Blyth, Northumberland, marks a transformative moment for both the region and the UK as a whole. This ambitious project, set to create over 4,000 jobs and establish one of Europe’s largest hyperscale AI datacentres, reflects Northumbria council’s proactive engagement with international investors and reinforces the UK’s global position of leadership in AI. It is a great example of government and investors collaborating to create net-new opportunities across the UK.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of meeting Feryal Clark MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for AI and Digital Government, to hear about the Government’s plans to put AI at the heart of economic growth in the UK. It was also an opportunity to raise some of the concerns that businesses have around the Government’s plans.