Britain To Funnel 300 Million Pounds in AI Supercomputing By CIOTechOutlook Team

Britain To Funnel 300 Million Pounds in AI Supercomputing

CIOTechOutlook Team | Thursday, 02 November 2023, 02:41 IST

Britain announced an increase in the funding for two supercomputers to promote research into making sophisticated artificial intelligence models safe.

Funding for the "AI Research Resource" will be increased to 300 million pounds ($363.57 million) from a previously announced 100 million pounds, the government said at an AI safety summit aimed at charting a safe way forward for the rapidly evolving technology, as per the economic times.

"Frontier AI models are becoming exponentially more powerful," British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on social media platform X.

"This investment will make sure Britain's scientific talent have the tools they need to make the most advanced models of AI safe."

Britain announced two new supercomputers, one in Cambridge and one in Bristol, that would provide researchers with resources more than thirty times the capacity of the country's existing greatest public AI computing tools. The machines will be used to analyze complex AI models to assess safety features, as well as to promote advances in medicine development and renewable energy, according to the government.

AI supercomputers are often built with carefully tailored gear that includes hundreds of thousands of processors, a specialized network, and massive storage.

The "Isambard-AI" supercomputer in the Bristol will have 5,000 advanced AI chips from Nvidia, while the "Dawn" machine in Cambridge will be provided through a cooperation with Dell and UK SME StackHPC and powered by more than 1,000 Intel CPUs, according to the Britain.