UK expands visas for AI talent

The National

a day ago

The UK government is aiming to more than double the number of science fellowships it awards as part of a drive to boost the UK's AI infrastructure, its technology secretary announced on Tuesday.
Peter Kyle said the government would not shy away from 'risk' when it came to developing AI infrastructure in the UK, but that it needed overseas talent to do so, as well as training new generations at home.
'Our tech success wouldn't have been possible without brilliant people choosing time and time again to call Britain home. In an ever in an ever more competitive world, we simply can't afford to lose that status,' Mr Kyle said.
'So we will introduce a new scheme to attract the brightest and the best brains to Britain,' he said, speaking at London Tech Week conference.
Mr Kyle said the UK government would 'double' the number of places available in its Encode: AI science fellowship, which embeds AI researchers into UK labs. The next cohort is expected to start in Autumn.
He also announced the launch of the Turing AI 'Global' Fellowship, to attract five AI experts to the UK. This is in addition to existing Turing AI Fellowships which have been available since 2019.
Global fellows will receive packages to relocate to the UK and build a team of experts to conduct 'frontier' AI research that contributes to the UK's infrastructure.
It comes as Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced a 'national skills drive' worth £187 million ($239 million) to give 'over a million students' the chance to start careers in AI on Monday.
Mr Starmer also pledged a £1 billion investment in AI compute – the microchips, processing units and cabling that make AI systems function – and announced a new government AI assistant called 'Extract' to help process planning applications.
Mr Kyle said the UK had been overburdened by a ' regulatory regime that was stuck in the past', and that the new government was prepared to take 'risks' to use AI and technology to stimulate jobs and cut costs.
He spoke of British businesses who were seeking better opportunities overseas. 'When countries become preoccupied with avoiding risk, they risk resisting innovation,' he said. 'Too often Britain has felt like a country where people resist innovation.'
Mr Kyle also said that a centre focused on accelerating the adoption of AI will be established at London's Imperial College, in partnership with the UK government and the World Economic Forum.
The UK government will also work on creating OpenBind, 'world's largest database' analysing how drugs interact with proteins. Mr Kyle said the project 'could cut the cost of developing new treatments by up to £100 billion'.