This week on UpVote we're talking about artificial intelligence – not the technology, but the policy of AI, which is a subject of great fascination in government at the moment.
In last week's budget, as well as pledging to get “genuine driverless vehicles” on Britain’s roads by 2021, the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, announced a £75 million designed to boost AI in the UK. The plan is to establish “AI fellowships” and to give grants to fund 450 computer science 450 PhDs “to secure the UK’s leading position in the global AI market."
The government also promised to continue "exploratory work to facilitate data access through data trusts", an interesting policy idea we may hear more of in years to come.
These recommendations followed on directly from a big independent report, commissioned by the government, which was released at the end of last month. It was called ‘Growing the Artificial Intelligence Industry in the UK.” And the other week, its co-author Jérôme Pesenti came on to tell me about it.
We were joined by Stephen Cave, Executive Director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, a philosopher and former Foreign Office diplomat, to get some insight from him about how government is thinking about AI.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
