This is so sad. Like an addict who is hoping for that easy win to get them out of the terrible hole they are in...

This government (as the last, to be fair) is betting on unproven technology they barely understand and sometimes horribly misunderstand rather than making tough policy decisions.

The parts of this that actually materialise are very probably a good thing for the country, but this should really be business as usual. Alongside that I hear MPs, government ministers and commentators alike saying things like "when AI allows us to make vast efficiency gains in that government department...", "AI will obviously help to reinvigorate the Welsh economy...", "with AI we will be able to transition our industry to clean energy quicker..." (?!)

The fact that this very much feels like the country is lucky to have Nvidia/OpenAI rather than vice versa just demonstrates how badly managed the UK is.

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argsnd 7 hours ago | parent [-]

This just feels to me like you’re starting from a conclusion (“the UK is being badly managed”) and working backwards in a somewhat nonsensical manner.

Yes AI is new but it has contributed to something like 1/6th of total US economic growth over the last year and of course any government will be courting more investment of that type.

To the Americans I would note that your country is currently being even more badly run than the UK at the moment given that since Trump’s inauguration the UK has grown faster than you (and every other G7 economy).

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mutkach 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> 1/6th of total US economic growth over the last year

What economy indicator exactly are you referring to?

	▲	argsnd 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The percentage of GDP growth attributed to investments in computer and communications equipment, including chips, and data centres from the official statistics.

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ycombigators 7 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The UK has been badly managed for as long as I've been alive, which is half a century.

This isn't party political. The tories have been worse than Labour in many respects but it's a shit show all round imo.

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argsnd 7 hours ago | parent [-]

But then where hasn’t been? When I was born we were poorer than all of France, Japan, and Italy on a per capita basis and now we are not. We have broadly kept pace with US growth since the end of world war 2. We have failed to figure out strategies to close the gap with the US by growing faster but we are doing no worse.

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ycombigators 6 hours ago | parent [-]

"we are doing no worse" : is that the royal we? Because normal people absolutely are doing a lot worse over that last couple of decades.

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argsnd 6 hours ago | parent [-]

I fear “we are not the richest country in the world” is an unreasonable standard for claiming chronic mismanagement.

	▲	ycombigators 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Again with the "we". Per capita statistics are great distraction from neofeudalism. What was the per capita GDP of Wessex?