The story of the £2 billion ChatGPT plan is a classic tale of a big, disruptive idea meeting the inevitable constraints of government bureaucracy and process. Even with an enthusiastic minister, a radical proposal of this nature was always unlikely to survive contact with the machinery of the state.
The initial discussion between Technology Secretary Peter Kyle and OpenAI’s Sam Altman represented the creative, “blue-sky thinking” phase. This is where ambitious ideas are born, unconstrained by practical limitations.
However, for such an idea to become policy, it would have to pass through numerous bureaucratic hurdles. It would require a detailed cost-benefit analysis, inter-departmental consultation (as confirmed by the tech department), Treasury approval, and a rigorous procurement process. At each stage, the £2 billion cost and associated risks would have been intensely scrutinized.
The fact that the proposal “was not taken forward” or discussed with other departments indicates it failed at the very first hurdle. It was a big idea that was quickly and quietly suffocated by the practical, risk-averse nature of governmental process, a common fate for the most radical of political ambitions.