Britain risks becoming a “high value AI customer” rather than developing its own tech unless ministers urgently invest in domestic firms, the government’s top science advisory body has warned.
In a letter to AI minister Kanishka Narayan, the Council for Science and Technology (CST) called for a national AI sovereignty plan to reduce Britain’s reliance on foreign tech and protect its long-term competitiveness.
“Without deliberate and urgent action, the UK risks becoming a high-value AI customer, rather than country able to shape the technology and its usage”, the council warned.
The letter, originally sent in July, comes amid mounting pressure on ministers to reduce Britain’s dependence on US tech giants, which dominate the cloud infrastructure and advanced AI models used by UK PLC.
The CST, which advises the prime minister and cabinet, said the government needed to identify which technologies Britain should develop itself and where reliance on overseas suppliers was acceptable.
“The council believes that government needs a clear view of where national capability matters, where dependence is acceptable, and where the UK has a credible opportunity to lead”, it said.
Calls for AI sovereignty
The council made four recommendations, including mapping Britain’s AI infrastructure, appointing a single official to coordinate investment decisions and strengthening domestic skills, research and access to data.
It also urged ministers to test British AI models in public services, including healthcare and national security, while maintaining access to leading international systems.
The advisers suggested allocating national supercomputing capacity to these trials and considering an open-source British AI model proposed by the Alan Turing Institute.
The warning follows the launch of the government’s £500m Sovereign AI Fund, which invests in British startups developing strategically important technology.
Last week, the fund backed surveillance technology startup Augur, which is also receiving access to the UK’s Isambard-AI supercomputer to train its systems.
Starling Bank chief information officer Harriet Rees recently warned that Britain risked becoming “second in the queue” for AI without its own models and computing capacity.
“Anyone in this space knows that £500m pounds is really not a lot of money”, she told City AM.
Meanwhile, executives from BT, Leonardo and other tech firms have called for more than £20bn in sovereign AI investment over five years, covering computing power, data centres and energy infrastructure.
The CST stopped short of advocating complete technological independence, instead recommending targeted domestic investment alongside continued access to international AI systems.
“While access to the most powerful global models is important, the UK should not depend on them for all use cases”, the council said.
It warned that choices made now would determine whether Britain could retain the economic benefits of AI and control how the technology is developed and deployed.