The SIN Canada crew has organised a mission to the UK to deepen collaboration within the subject of AI compute and achieve insights into the UK’s supercomputing panorama.
The race for supercomputing energy is heating up globally, with nations recognising its pivotal position in coaching the following era of AI compute fashions.
Canada and the UK have emerged as main gamers within the science and know-how subject, with a shared imaginative and prescient of harnessing AI’s potential for society’s profit.
The Canadian delegation visited the UK with the intention of gaining invaluable insights into the UK’s supercomputing panorama.
This mission was underpinned by the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in early 2024 by the UK and Canadian governments, which established a cooperative framework for future collaboration in AI compute.
Understanding coverage improvement of AI compute
A core focus of the mission was to grasp the coverage improvement behind the UK’s AI compute investments, exascale investments, and the AI Analysis Useful resource.
In April 2024, Prime Minister Trudeau introduced Canada’s funding of CA$2bn to launch a brand new AI Compute Entry Fund and Canadian AI sovereign compute technique.
Because the sector develops, officers are eager to study from the UK’s expertise in constructing such large-scale infrastructure.
Moreover, the delegation sought insights into the UK’s undertaking administration and procurement approaches, entry insurance policies, and techniques for addressing the challenges of power consumption related to supercomputing – sustainable infrastructure is one aspect of the MoU.
The UK’s method to security and sustainability
The mission additionally offered a possibility to discover the UK’s method to AI security and safety.
Conferences with the UK Nationwide Cyber Safety Centre and the AI Security Institute had been essential in understanding the measures being taken to mitigate dangers related to AI compute.
These occasions facilitated beneficial dialogue with key stakeholders within the UK AI ecosystem.
One participant defined: “I’d enterprise to say that it has motivated a re-evaluation of what we consider might be potential, not solely in Canada, but in addition in what partnerships and cooperation is perhaps sparked between Canada and the UK within the realm of AI, compute infrastructure, and AI security.
“It actually dropped at life the true spirit of the UK-Canada MoU.”
Creating world-class supercomputing infrastructure
This SIN Canada-led inward mission marks a major step ahead within the Canada-UK AI compute collaboration.
By sharing data and finest practices, each nations can speed up their progress in creating world-class supercomputing infrastructure.
The final word purpose was to create an surroundings the place AI analysis and innovation can flourish, driving financial progress and addressing societal challenges.
Because the world turns into more and more reliant on AI, partnerships just like the one between Canada and the UK will likely be important for shaping the way forward for this transformative know-how.
There’ll doubtless be a return go to in February 2025 to additional cement UK-Canada AI collaboration and strengthen connections between UK and Canadian AI consultants.