UK Finally Joins AI Game With $1.4 Billion Investment, Still Far Behind Though

Major powers have been competing to be at the top of the artificial intelligence arena for some time now, with Russia, the US, and China being the top contenders, at the moment. Recently, the UK announced that it was finally done waiting on the sidelines and decided to join in with $1.4 billion in investments. Unfortunately, it’s going to take a lot more than that to catch up.

One of the reasons for investing in a rapidly growing industry that is predicted to contribute over $15.7 trillion in the global economy by 2030 for the UK is to prepare for a future once the Brexit issue is finally done. This particular arrangement in investing in AI research and development is actually a joint venture between the private and public sector, which the government has been doing a lot of, Reuters reports.

Some British officials have expressed confidence that the UK has a position of strength on this issue, which the country can capitalize on to win the race. If this isn’t done, other countries that are already well on their way to achieving AI dominance is going to pull the rug from right under the UK for a long time.

Unfortunately, the money that is currently planned for investment is peanuts compared to what other countries have already pumped into their own efforts at getting to the top. As Futurism notes, the private sector in the U.S. funneled about $21 billion into building its AI infrastructure and that amount has only grown since then.

In comparison, companies in the UK and the EU have only been investing about $3.8 billion in their respective AI industries. That does not bode well for those private sectors.

The only thing that the UK really has going for it is the concentration of its AI experts and research since a lot of that is going on in London. With its current $1.4 billion investment, it might just stand a chance at being competitive, but certainly not at getting to the top.