No 10 suggests UK still EU member in major gaffe
The UK left the EU in 2020, after the 2016 referendum
PA
No 10 has had to amend a tweet, after it mistakenly implied that the UK was still a part of the European Union in a gaffe.
The official No 10 account posted a graphic saying the UK “is home to twice as many AI companies as any other EU country”.
It was then deleted and reposted 45 minutes later, this time saying the UK “is home to twice as many AI companies as any EU country”, dropping the “other”.
The UK left the European Union officially in January 2020, after the 2016 referendum.
The original tweet which says "any other EU country"
The post on X, formerly known as Twitter, was promoting the Government’s investment in artificial intelligence.
This comes after the technology secretary, Michelle Donelan, announced £13million in funding for AI projects in healthcare.
Rishi Sunak wants the UK to lead efforts to ensure the benefits of AI are “harnessed for the good of humanity”.
To make the UK a global hub for AI, he has pledged £1billion in funding towards it.
He has also founded a UK taskforce for the tech, focused on maximising its benefits whilst also keeping it safe.
The thread, following on from the tweet, discussed the preparations underway for the international summit of the responsible use of AI, which is being hosted in the UK.
It highlighted the appointment of AI experts Matt Clifford and Jonathan Black, who will be leading the preparations for the event.
However, some have questioned the UK’s status as host.
The tweet and subsequent thread discussing the UK's AI capabilities
Wikimedia Commons
Experts are wondering whether the UK had enough leadership experience in the field to organise the summit.
The post on X pointed out that leading AI firm DeepMind was founded in the UK over 10 years ago, whilst OpenAI and Anthropic AI both opened their first international office here.
AI is defined as a machine’s ability to perform tasks that would have previously required human intelligence.
An example of this chatbots, such as ChatGPT, which allows users to have human-like conversations with the AI.