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Comment by abrichr | Hacker News Reader

This is a bold plan, but there are real risks here. Opening NHS data for AI research sounds great in theory, but we’ve seen what happens when privacy safeguards fail. The Post Office scandal is a clear warning about relying too much on tech without accountability.

That said, the investment in sovereign compute capacity and miniature nuclear reactors is worth celebrating on its own. More nuclear energy is a win for everyone.

Let's hope they get it right.

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The UK already has sovereign compute capacity. Just it's excessively expensive, mostly legacy and expensive to run and maintain. Crown hosting initiative 5 - 10 years ago was an attempt to solve some of that but not heard much positive about it.

Recently one of the more successful UK hosting partners went bust as it's really not possible to compete against the offerings of AWS etc for a lot (most) government uses. There are obvious exceptions where cost Vs functionality Vs security trade-offs kick-in and security wins.

> Let's hope they get it right.

There's no right way of doing this. The only good thing here is the UK will be gifting to the rest of world a canary - dead.

It wouldn't even be the first time we've done that.

> The Post Office scandal is a clear warning about relying too much on tech without accountability.

No, it is just the drop in the ocean.

I bet nobody reads Orwell in Britain anymore. /s

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