In a bid to make Britain the fastest adopting AI country in the G7, the government has released £27m of funding to bring free AI courses to workers across all industries.

The announcement comes midst recent global environmental research that finds AI has released as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in 2025 as the whole of New York City, as its water usage overtakes that of the entirety of the global bottled-water demand.

Backed by Skills England and the department for science, innovation and technology, the AI Skills Boost programme features free AI foundations training for all workers with a plan to upskill 10 million people by 2030.

Liz Kendall, secretary of state for science, innovation and technology says “change is inevitable, but the consequences of change are not. We will protect people from the risks of AI while ensuring everyone can share in its benefits.”

The online courses can take 20 minutes, showing people how to use AI for everyday tasks.

The International Energy Agency said earlier this year that AI-focused datacentre electricity consumption is expected to more than double by 2030.

Donald Campbell, director of advocacy at non-profit campaigning organisation Foxglove comments on the new research: “this is yet more evidence that the public is footing the environmental bill for some of the richest companies on Earth,” adding:

“It is likely just the tip of the iceberg. The datacentre construction frenzy, driven by generative AI, is only getting started. Just one of these new ‘hyperscale’ facilities can generate climate emissions equivalent to several international airports. And in the UK alone, there are an estimated 100-200 of them in the planning system.”

Current founding partners of the government’s AI Skills Boost programme includes Amazon, Barclays, Google, IBM and Microsoft.