By Dr. Daniel Hulme

In September, US companies pledged $150bn of investments in the UK’s AI infrastructure, raising the age-old question of whether Britain can truly launch and scale technology businesses.

In 2009, Gordon Brown sent me to Silicon Valley to investigate how Britain could grow its tech industry. The project was supposed to last six months, but I stayed for two years. The conclusions I formed then remain applicable for the UK AI industry today.

The UK will struggle to scale AI companies unless four barriers are addressed.

Market size

The most important step is to build stronger trade deals with the EU and other regions to expand our market size and compete with the US. Differences of language, taxation, regulation, custom and practice make it far harder to start a company in Manchester and sell in Marseille, than is the case in Memphis and Manhattan.

Europe often needs a crisis to galvanise it into action, but it cannot depend on ‘assured access’ for artificial intelligence. AI is already at the........

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