Government launches £1bn bid to make UK an AI ‘hotspot’

The Government has announced a £1bn investment drive aimed at making the UK a “hotspot” for artificial intelligence (AI) research.

The funding includes £300m of private financing raised with the assistance of “US tech giants, European telecoms firms” and “Japanese venture capital”, Bloomberg reports. The Government is injecting an additional £300m in new spending, on top of the existing £400m of investment that was announced last July.

Around 1,000 new government-funded PhDs focusing on AI will also be created, The Daily Telegraph reports.

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Ministers believe the AI push could bolster the UK economy by a total of £232bn, the newspaper says.

According to Fortune magazine, the programme will include the creation of a £12m “data ethics and innovation” centre, in order to “address some of the ethical issues” surrounding the technology.

Some of these concerns have come from Tesla and SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk, who claimed last year that AI will be the “most likely cause of WWIII” if governments do not research risks associated with the technology.

Announcing the funding boost, Business Secretary Greg Clark said: “As with all innovation, there is also the potential for misuse which puts the whole sector under scrutiny and undermines public confidence.

“That is why we are establishing a new world-leading body, to ensure the ethical use of data in AI applications for the benefit of all.”