UK Science Council Proposes AI Sovereignty Plan

The Council for Science and Technology has published advice urging the UK Government to create an AI Sovereignty Plan. The council defines AI sovereignty as sufficient control across the AI value chain to achieve national objectives, retain economic and public value, and remain resilient under pressure.

The proposed plan would map UK capabilities and dependencies across computing power, data, skills, models, governance and public adoption. It would help officials decide which capabilities the UK should own, develop with partners or access through resilient arrangements. The council also recommends rapid pilots in areas such as national security, health and education, with public participation in their design.

Three further recommendations cover governance, domestic capability and access to global models. The council proposes a single accountable government owner, an AI skills and secondment route, continued support for computing research, and trials of data access arrangements in at least two areas such as health and creative data. It also recommends maintaining trusted access to leading international AI models while developing selected capabilities in the UK.