OpenAI, the American AI juggernaut better known for chatbots and improbable optimism, has announced its Stargate project for the UK will be delayed. Not by a shortage of algorithms or even the usual British weather, but by Britain’s soaring energy prices and regulatory red tape so tangled it could make a chatbot weep.
OPENAI HALTS UK STARGATE AI PROJECT CITING SOARING POWER PRICES AND REGULATORY 'COSPLAY'
OpenAI’s Stargate UK was intended to be a temple for artificial intelligence, set to rise majestically from the northerly mud of Cobalt Park and Blyth. Instead, the only thing rising are energy bills, and perhaps the collective blood pressure in Westminster.
Despite a government eager to boast of “landmark tech deals” and even a White House handshake, the spectre of UK investment has evaporated faster than heat from a British radiator. While the UK government serenades big tech with promises of world leadership in AI, OpenAI has quietly filed the Stargate blueprints in the bottom drawer, promising to revisit them if the UK ever finds a way to power lightbulbs without remortgaging Windsor Castle.
The problem, we are breathlessly informed, is the price of energy. Thanks to international drama, gas-fired power and a national allergy to renewables, running a data centre in Britain is now only marginally cheaper than launching one from the Moon. Britain’s regulatory scene is also said to be less ‘progressive’ and more ‘absurdist performance art’ for ambitious investors.
Britain’s bid to become an AI superpower is ever more convincing—provided the future of intelligence fits inside a candlelit thatched cottage.
OpenAI—backed by American billions, and more yet from SoftBank, Oracle, Nvidia, and Microsoft—has other options. The US gets tens of billions poured into AI infrastructure. Here, though, the hottest investment in tech is arguably in utility meters and kits to survive brownouts.
The Ministry of Wishful Announcements continues to insist this is all part of the plan, while Conservative MPs point fingers at Labour’s ‘headline-chasing,’ and Labour presumably blames Brexit, climate protestors, and the price of chip fat. Meanwhile, British start-ups ponder if anyone can afford to switch on a server until the next government energy cap.
Citizens of the formerly great AI isle: rejoice. London keeps OpenAI’s research hub and a few bilateral promises. As for Stargate UK, the portal remains very much closed—its untapped ambition the latest addition to the national collection of grand plans on indefinite hiatus.
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