A new supercomputer set to be one the most powerful in Europe is to be built in Bristol to support research into the uses of AI.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has announced the plan for the AI Research Resource (AIRR), which will be hosted by the University of Bristol and serve as a national facility to support work on the potential and safe use of AI.
It will vastly increase the UK’s compute capacity, as a cluster made up of thousands of state-of-the-art graphics processing units (GPUs) that will be able to train the large language models.
DSIT said the AIRR will help to underpin the UK’s next generation compute infrastructure, in line with the recommendations of the Future of Compute Review.
It will be dubbed Isambard-AI after Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the engineer whose creations included Bristol’s famous Suspension Bridge.
Another Isambard
Bristol already plays host to leading computing technology, with the Isambard 3 supercomputer due to be installed later this year to support research in AI and machine learning, while the University of Bristol is home to the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Interactive Artificial intelligence.
Both Isambard 3 and Isambard-AI will be based at the National Composites Centre, in collaboration with the GW4 group of universities – an alliance made up of the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter.
Plans for the AIRR were first announced in March, backed by a £900 million investment in the UK’s computing capacity.
Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan said: “We are backing the future of British innovation, investing in a world leading AI Research Resource in Bristol that will catalyse scientific discovery and keep the UK at the forefront of AI development.
“The Isambard-AI cluster will be one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, and will help industry experts and researchers harness the game changing potential of AI, including through the mission-critical work of our Frontier AI Taskforce.”
