Editorial: UK puts AI at the centre of its Budget

British Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced the country’s Spring Budget this week and supporting the AI industry was at the centre.

The UK is Europe’s AI leader. Indeed, behind the US and China, the country’s tech sector overall has the third-highest amount of VC investment in the world – more than Germany and France combined – and has produced more than double the number of $1 billion tech firms than any other European country.

Gerard Grech, CEO of Tech Nation,...

16 March 2023 | Artificial Intelligence

£370m plan launched to turn UK into ‘tech superpower’

A pile of Sterling notes.

The Prime Minister and Technology Secretary have unveiled the Government’s plan to cement the UK’s place as a science and technology superpower by 2030, alongside a raft of new measures backed by over £370 million to boost investment in innovation, bring the world’s best talent to the UK, and seize the potential of ground-breaking new technologies like AI.

The new Science and Technology Framework is the first major piece of work from the newly created Department...

6 March 2023 | Artificial Intelligence

FBI director warns about Beijing’s AI program

FBI Director Christopher Wray has warned about the national security threat posed by Beijing’s AI program.

During a panel at the World Economic Forum, Wray explained that Beijing’s AI program “is not constrained by the rule of law”.

Wray says Beijing has “a bigger hacking program than any other nation” and will use machine learning to further boost the capabilities of its state-sponsored hackers.

Much like nuclear expertise, AI can be used to...

23 January 2023 | Artificial Intelligence

China’s deepfake laws come into effect today

China will begin enforcing its strict new rules around the creation of deepfakes from today.

Deepfakes are increasingly being used for manipulation and humiliation. We’ve seen deepfakes of figures like disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to commit fraud, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to spread disinformation, and US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to make her appear drunk.

Last month, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced rules to clampdown on...

10 January 2023 | Applications

UK creates £1.5M fund to support carbon-reducing AI projects

The UK Government has launched a £1.5 million programme to support the use of AI to reduce carbon emissions.

“The UK is one of the world’s most advanced AI economies, and AI technology is already having a transformative impact on our economy and society,” said UK Science Minister George Freeman.

“But there is tremendous potential to do more.”

The AI for Decarbonisation programme is part of the wider £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio that aims...

22 November 2022 | Applications

UK AI sector achieved record funding in Q2 2022

New data from Tech Nation and Dealroom found that VC investment in UK AI companies hit a record in Q2 2022 and is on track to at least equal last year.

Around 2,009 AI companies are based in the UK, the AI capital of Europe. Renowned companies include Graphcore, BenevolentAI, Darktrace, Wayve, and DeepMind.

Last year saw a record investment of £6.6 billion flow into UK AI companies. In 2022 so far, £3.2 billion has been invested. Tech Nation notes that investment into...

6 October 2022 | Applications

AI Expo: Protecting ethical standards in the age of AI

Rapid advancements in AI require keeping high ethical standards, as much for legal reasons as moral.

During a session at this year’s AI & Big Data Expo Europe, a panel of experts provided their views on what businesses need to consider before deploying artificial intelligence.

Here’s a list of the panel’s participants:

Moderator: Frans van Bruggen, Policy Officer for AI and FinTech at De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB)Aoibhinn Reddington, Artificial...

21 September 2022 | Ethics & Society

AI discovers over 20K taxable French swimming pools

The French government is successfully using AI to discover taxable swimming pools.

IT firm Capgemini worked with Google to create the AI which analyses aerial photos taken by France’s National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information, identifies pools, and then cross-references them with national tax and property registries.

So far, the project has spotted 20,356 undeclared swimming pools. The government has used the data to collect almost €10 million in...

30 August 2022 | Applications

Lyft exec will head the Pentagon’s AI efforts

Craig Martell, Head of Machine Learning at Lyft, is set to head the Pentagon’s AI efforts.

Breaking Defense first broke the news after learning Martell was destined to be named as the Pentagon’s new chief digital and AI officer.

Martell has significant AI industry experience – leading efforts at not just Lyft but also Dropbox and LinkedIn – but has no experience navigating public-sector bureaucracy. The Pentagon is going to be very much “in at the deep-end”...

26 April 2022 | Artificial Intelligence

DCMS spent 75% more on data scientists in 2021

Investments in data scientists by the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) continue to increase rapidly.

The data, retrieved by the Parliament Street think tank, shows that DCMS has spent an estimated £20,606,100 on data scientist and data analyst roles between 2017 and 2021.

Niall Crosby, CEO of AG Grid, commented:

“Today’s digital world creates a lot of data, and the ability to process, understand, and make decisions based on...

22 April 2022 | Legislation & Government