The UK will try to negotiate privileged access for its companies to the European market for artificial intelligence technologies as part of its course of convergence with the European Union. London is thus seeking to avoid excessive technological dependence on the US, The Daily Telegraph reports, citing its sources.
The issue of cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence is expected to be among the topics of the UK-EU summit on November 20. According to the publication, the British government is trying to convince Brussels to grant UK companies so-called “trusted access“ to the EU technology market.
The stakes for British business are significant. The European Union is preparing rules that would give European companies an advantage in public procurement for technologies related to artificial intelligence. This could include the construction and use of data centers, as well as the purchase of software and subscriptions for AI chatbots.
London fears that if British companies remain outside such a preferential regime, they could lose access to contracts worth billions of euros. Therefore, the government insists that the United Kingdom be treated as a trusted partner, even though the country is no longer a member of the EU.
The plan also has a broader strategic goal - to reduce Britain's dependence on American technology companies and infrastructure. The United States currently has leading positions in the development of the most powerful artificial intelligence models, cloud services and the computing infrastructure necessary for them.
However, the government's intentions have drawn criticism from the British opposition. The Conservative Party's shadow business secretary, Julia Lopez, warned that closer ties to European rules could place further constraints on Britain's tech sector.
“There is a reason why the biggest tech companies of the 21st century were not founded in the EU. Brussels' bureaucracy has stifled innovation and growth, leaving the EU with neither its own sovereign capacity in artificial intelligence nor world-class leading research laboratories,“ Lopez said.
According to her, the new initiative could become yet another attempt to tie Britain to European regulations without British taxpayers getting enough in return.
The upcoming negotiations outline the wider problem facing Britain after Brexit - how to retain independent regulatory and economic policies while gaining the widest possible access to the European single market. With artificial intelligence, the issue takes on added weight as technological independence becomes an increasingly important part of economic and national security.