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27 Jan 2021

UKRI publish new report 'Transforming our world with AI'

The UKRI have recently published a new report exploring the cross-sector opportunities to support AI research and innovation in the UK, as developed through the UKRI AI review.

AI is already helping us to meet challenges in the fields such as healthcare, energy, the environment, food and agriculture and business productivity. It has also been estimated that leading countries could gain an extra 20% to 25% of economic growth and productivity through AI over the next decade. The UK is well placed to take advantage of this technology. We are ranked third in the world for our research and innovation in AI, remarkable for our size, but only 11th in terms of our ability to realise innovation and impact from AI, providing a real gap and opportunity.

According to the UKRI report, the profound impact of AI on the economy has not yet been realised and will rely on substantial research, development, innovation and commercialisation efforts if the UK is to seize the huge opportunity that AI represents.

In order to position the UK as a leader in international AI research and innovation; UKRI aim to support:

  • creative discovery-led research that delivers the next generation of transformative AI technologies
  • new capabilities and understanding that deliver responsible and trustworthy AI technologies designed with an understanding of the real-world context in which they will be used, and drawing from public opinions and perceptions
  • bringing researchers, innovators, and problem owners together for application driven research and innovation in discovery science and in areas such as health, the environment, agriculture, security, and government policy

They will seek to ensure that the UK has the right environment for world-leading researchers and innovators to thrive including by:

  • supporting the development of a networked and interconnected UK AI research and innovation community, convened by a central organisation building on the successes of The Alan Turing Institute
  • facilitating businesses to develop and deploy cutting-edge AI to increase business productivity, resilience and competitiveness across the economy
  • recruiting, developing, and retaining the best people with the broadest skills and approaches to develop and use the AI technologies of the future
  • working to ensure that access to data and compute capacity is not a barrier to research and innovation
  • promoting the interdisciplinarity and cross-sector working needed for successful advances in AI
  • working internationally on excellent AI research and innovation and shared opportunities
  • enabling public engagement with AI to be embedded in our research and innovation

The UKRI full report ‘Transforming our world with AI’ can be accessed here. To get involved in techUK’s work programme on Data Analytics and AI, please contact [email protected].    

Katherine Holden

Katherine Holden

Associate Director, Data Analytics, AI and Digital ID, techUK

 

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