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Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 16 January 2025

Debate

Artificial Intelligence Opportunities Action Plan

Contribution

My Lords, the Minister will be aware that there has been a tendency for high-tech and research investment to go overwhelmingly to the south and east of England in recent decades. I want to underline the regional dimension of AI. The supercomputer was going to be in Edinburgh, which has an excellent computing faculty and a large element of highly trained people. Leeds and Manchester also have useful workforces already trained for this. The renewable energy and the water—which I understand is necessary to cool these computers—is much more easily available in the north and west of the United Kingdom than in the south and east. Can the Minister ensure, to the best of his ability, that we do not yet again have facilities built in the south and east of England, thus increasing the pressure on housing and everything else in the south and east and leaving the north and west in poverty?

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