Alphabet, the parent company of Google and the fourth-largest company in the world, has announced a £5 billion ($6.8 billion) investment in artificial intelligence (AI) in the UK.
The funding is the first of several significant US investments being announced in advance of US President Donald Trump’s state visit, and it will be utilized for scientific research and infrastructure over the next two years.
In an exclusive interview with BBC News, Ruth Porat, the president and chief investment officer of Google, stated that the company’s “pioneering work in advanced science” had profound opportunities in the UK.” On Tuesday, the firm and Chancellor Rachel Reeves will formally unveil a $1 billion (£735 million) data center in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire.
In addition to expanding this website, the investment will support DeepMind, a London-based company led by British Nobel Prize winner Sir Demis Hassabis that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to transform cutting-edge scientific research.
Ms Porat stated that there was “now a US-UK special technology relationship… there’s downside risks that we need to work on together to mitigate, but there’s also tremendous opportunity in economic growth, in social services, advancing science”.
“There’s still work to be done to land that,” she said, adding that benefiting from the AI growth “was not a foregone conclusion.” She cited the government’s AI Opportunities Action Plan as a factor in the investment.
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