​The investment was announced by the UK Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary, Michelle Donelan, on the first day of the government's AI Safety Summit. The AI Safety Summit considers the risks of artificial intelligence (AI) and discuss their mitigation through internationally coordinated action.  

AIRR is a national facility recently announced in March by the government that will provide world-leading AI-specialised compute capacity to public researchers, academia, and industry. The investment will include a new Cambridge-based supercomputer as well as supporting a Bristol based computing facility in a bid to further cement the UK's place as a world leader in AI. It will open doors to a wave of new UK-based AI discoveries and innovations.

Tom Griffin, Director of Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Scientific Computing (part of UKRI), and UKRI lead for AIRR, said, "The launch of the AI Research Resource Phase 1 marks the beginning of an essential new era for AI research in the UK.

"AI could well transform society as much as the industrial revolution or the dawn of the information age, and if we are going to keep pace with this change, we must equip UK scientists with the tools to explore and advance this burgeoning new field.

"UKRI and STFC are proud to support this world leading supercomputing resource and the exciting research across the UK that it will facilitate."

For more information and to read full details of the announcement, please see the UKRI news release​.