No 10 suggests Britain is still part of EU in embarrassing social media gaffe

Downing Street boasted UK had more AI companies than ‘any other EU country’

No 10 was forced to correct a tweet suggesting that the UK was still inside the EU.

Downing Street made the mistake in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, boasting about Britain’s prowess in Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The official account used a graphic saying the UK “is home to twice as many AI companies as any other EU country”.

After users pointed out that Britain was no longer part of the bloc after Brexit, No 10 then changed to say “any EU country” instead.

The post was aimed at highlighting the Rishi Sunak government’s investment in AI, including £13m invested in tech for the NHS.

As well as hoping to make London the home of a new global regulator, Sunak is keen for the UK to host an international AI summit this autumn.

But experts in the field have questioned Britain’s capability, with concerns that the country is lagging behind much of Europe and the US.

It comes as AI has been recommended for use to aid NHS clinicians for the first time, in a move that could help boost cancer patients by saving radiographers hundreds of thousands of hours.

Rishi Sunak is hoping to boost Britain’s AI capabilities to help the NHS (PA Wire)

Nine platforms have been given the green light in draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), which said they could relieve “severe pressure” on radiology departments and save money.

AI is used by radiographers to create contours, an outline of cancer patients’ healthy organs.

The process is carried out in cases such as lung, prostate or colorectal cancers and ensures beam radiotherapy does not damage healthy cells. At the moment, radiographers outline healthy organs on a CT or MRI scan by hand.

Nice said evidence reviewed by its independent medical technologies advisory committee found that AI platforms “generally produce similar quality contours” as those carried out manually, with most only needing “minor edits”.

Using the technology could be quicker, giving clinicians more time to spend with patients or focus on more complex cases. It is the first piece of Nice guidance to recommend the use of AI to aid clinicians in their role.

Sarah Byron, programme director for health technologies at the public body, said the use of AI could “help support treatment planning alongside clinical oversight by a trained healthcare professional could save both time and money”.

Clinical experts advising Nice estimated that they saved between 10 and 30 minutes per treatment plan by using AI depending on the amount of editing needed. Further evidence suggested time saved could range between three and 80 minutes per plan.

Nice said the lowest potential time saving of three minutes could save doctors 3,750 hours per 75,000 treatment plans. On the higher end of the scale – 80 minutes – 100,000 hours would be saved.