Source: The UK’s National AI Strategy, summarized by the AI HUB Project, June 2023
Outline of the UK National AI Strategy

The UK's AI policy can be traced back to the "UK AI Sector Development Report" released in October 2017. In the Industrial Strategy White Paper released in November 2017, AI was further regarded as one of the four major challenges for future development. In 2019, the UK established the AI Council to provide expert advice to senior leaders of the government and AI ecosystem. It proposed an AI Roadmap in January 2021, providing 16 recommendations and strategies to the government. Its core message is for the government to develop an independent national AI strategy. The UK responded in the second half of 2021 and released the "National AI Strategy" based on the development path of its digital policy in the past. The contents reveal the overall development vision, goals, key actions, and short, medium and long-term action plans of UK for AI in the next 10 years.

The UK's National AI Strategy further emphasizes the UK's vision to maintain its leading position in AI and become a global AI innovation center in the next ten years. Its five main goals are: (1) Ensure that all regions/sectors can share the benefits of adopting AI, (2) maintain the UK’s leadership in AI R&D, (3) drive the UK’s GDP growth with the growth of the AI industry, (4) promote and maintain the UK’s AI literacy, and (5) establish its own AI capabilities to protect national security. To achieve the above goals, the UK's National AI Strategy provides three specific action strategies. The first is the long-term need to invest in and plan for the AI ecosystem, in order to maintain the UK's leadership as an AI superpower. The second is to support industrial AI and digital transformation and ensure that AI is inclusive. The third is to ensure that the UK has a say in AI governance, encourage innovation and investment, and protect public interests and moral values.

In terms of the ultimate strategic goals of actions, the UK’s main goal for the National AI Strategy is to improve the level of AI use by enterprises nationwide, attract international investments in AI companies in the UK, and cultivate the next generation of local technical talents, so as to promote the prosperity of the entire UK, ensure that everyone can benefit from AI, and apply AI to solve global challenges, such as climate change. Another main feature of the UK’s AI industry is that it mainly adopts guiding principles for AI regulation. As mentioned above, the UK hopes to establish a regulatory framework conducive to innovation to achieve its vision of becoming a global Trustworthy AI innovation center.