Beneficial Intelligence
For a country to achieve success, it must first be able to imagine it: that is why, in a political landscape so often dominated by a narrative of despair, stories of groundbreaking attainment and enormous potential must not be ignored. The triumph of DeepMind at the International Collegiate Programming Contest in Azerbaijan should not only be celebrated, therefore, but also used to support a British economic renewal with AI at its centre.
DeepMind has a very British origin story. It was conceived in London by Sir Demis Hassabis, a Cambridge graduate and Nobel prizewinner whose vision merged neuroscience with machine learning. From its headquarters in King’s Cross, London, it has made dramatic advances in artificial intelligence which include mastering the complex game Go beyond human competitors, predicting protein structures and assisting in medical diagnosis. In Azerbaijan a version of the company’s Gemini 2.5 AI model achieved “gold-medal level” results, placing second overall when compared with university teams operating under the same conditions. What drew particular attention, however, was that Gemini solved “question C” alone, a challenge beyond the capabilities of any human team. That such a breakthrough should arrive as US tech giants announced £31 billion of investment in the UK is yet another sign that Britain has the necessary foundations and human talent to become a powerhouse of AI innovation. Already, British AI companies contribute £12 billion to the economy, twice as much as in 2023, and employ more than 86,000 people.
In Gemini’s case, its prowess in programming signals a fundamental shift in software development, whereby ordinary people who are not computer science graduates can build sophisticated applications using natural language instructions rather than specialist syntax. Where the internet democratised expression and publication, this AI revolution could do the same for programming itself. And even under stiff competition from China and Silicon Valley, Britain possesses significant advantages in the field: world-class universities, strong but flexible regulatory frameworks and a hub for international talent. To be an early centre of AI innovation offers one other prize too: it would allow the UK to exercise much-needed ethical oversight in a fast-developing technology.
Yet although the UK undoubtedly has the skillset to seize this rare chance, elements of our infrastructure remain in question. Datacentres are notoriously energy-hungry, and Jensen Huang, the chief executive of the AI chipmaker Nvidia, has warned that Britain will still need gas-fired power stations alongside renewable and nuclear energy sources if it is to meet the demands of the “Big Bang of the AI era”. When asked about this yesterday James Murray, the chief secretary to the Treasury, sounded distinctly cagey, reiterating that “it’s not part of our plan”. Yet despite the government’s recent commitment to Sizewell C and small modular reactors built by Rolls-Royce, Treasury dithering and delay has meant that this project is far behind where it needs to be.
While the nuclear programme develops capacity, the government must remain open-minded, agile and pragmatic on energy sources. The Roman philosopher Seneca observed that luck happens when preparation meets opportunity. In the face of foreign competition on AI, the latter must not be squandered for lack of the former.
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