Healthcare leaders raise concerns about £1.3bn cut to AI funding

Healthcare leaders have voiced concerns that UK government plans to scrap £1.3 billion of funding for AI and technology projects could make it more difficult to use AI in health and care. 

The funding promised by the former Conservative government, included £800 million for the creation of an exascale supercomputer at Edinburgh University and £500m for AI Research Resource, which funds computing power for AI.

Pritesh Mistry, fellow in digital technologies at The King’s Fund, told Digital Health News that potential funding cuts will make it more difficult to use AI for health and care and could slow the development and implementation of AI tools that have potential to help address urgent challenges in the system.

“The government faces difficult decisions on public finances, but unlocking the opportunities AI creates require the infrastructure to facilitate the development of AI to be created and maintained so academia, suppliers, startups and health and care organisations can collaborate to unlock the opportunities presented by AI,” Mistry said.

He added that the UK is one of the leading countries in the field of AI, including AI development and implementation in the NHS and social care.

“Recent developments in AI show great promise to address some of the challenges facing the health and care system such as alleviating shortages in the workforce, reducing treatment times, improving safety and outcomes but also support transformation in patient empowerment and prevention,” Mistry said.

The business community has also raised fears that the cuts could make it harder to innovate and affect the UK’s global competitiveness in tech and AI.

Rachel Murphy, founder of business consultancy, The Grafter and advisor to health tech communications agency Silver Buck, said that plans to shelve funding are “short-sighted” and will have a “huge impact on innovative businesses who are working hard to try and improve long standing issues with the use and implementation of more cutting-edge technology”.

“Furthermore, the benefits of starting a business in the UK are currently negligible in comparison to a number of other countries, and this decision is yet another kick in the teeth.

“If the UK doesn’t start to encourage and support entrepreneurs here to drive innovation, then it’s clear that more talent will disappear,” Murphy said.

In response, a spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) said: “We are absolutely committed to building technology infrastructure that delivers growth and opportunity for people across the UK.

“The UK Government is taking difficult and necessary spending decisions across all departments in the face of billions of pounds of unfunded commitments.

“This is essential to restore economic stability and deliver our national mission for growth”.

They added that the AI Opportunities Action Plan, launched in July 2024. would “identify how we can bolster our compute infrastructure to better suit our needs and consider how AI and other emerging technologies can best support our new industrial strategy”.

DSIT said that £300m in funding has been distributed to the AI Research Resource, and future investment in computer infrastructure would be considered following the development of the AI Opportunities Action Plan.