Artificial Intelligence (AI) is big business and a recent government report projected that by 2035 the AI market could be worth around £630 billion in the UK alone.
The extra gain in income would come from a variety of sources including improvements in healthcare, more personalized services, and adopting machine learning to find better and more efficient ways of utilizing resources.
However, in order for that to happen the UK needs to remain in a leading position when it comes to AI research and development.
To do this the UK needs to encourage more business to integrate machine learning and AI into their business models.
A series of recommendations have been put forward by Prime Minister Theresa May on ways in which businesses and academic leaders can help shape the industrial strategy of the country.
It follows the policy implemented in January of using government power to influence and promote technologies and key industries.
In addition to AI, May’s government also intends to promote the areas of robotics, ‘smart-energy’ technologies, and 5G wireless internet.
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The report also calls for 300 new masters degree students in AI to be sponsored each year by the industry while the government and universities create another 200 AI doctoral students.
Conversion courses have also been suggested which would help people develop a new skill in machine learning as well as helping businesses understand how AI can benefit them in their area of expertise.
“The U.K. today has good skills but is not at the scale that is necessary,” said Jerome Presenti, chief executive officer of health care research startup BenevolentAI.
According to the report, the government should allow corporations and academics access to more of its own data as well as that from publicly-funded research. “The big thing to drive the adoption of AI in industry is to allow broader access to data.”
Up until now, it’s been a grey area as to whether or not others could use data extracted from public research. However, the report fully supports any legal changes that may be required to make the “right to mine” legal for any data that has been obtained in this way.
Presenti, along with Wendy Hall, co-author of the report, and a professor of computer science at the University of Southampton, has called for “Data Trusts” to be developed jointly between the government and industry that would act as a data-sharing contract between the two.
Original article Bloomberg
