The government’s recent investment into AI is a welcome step towards securing the UK’s position as a leader in this field, but the road to success is littered with challenges. The best way around them is for the government, private sector and academia to work hand-in-glove to fulfil AI’s promise, says Ed Stacey, a partner at IQ Capital,
Harnessing artificial intelligence and big data is one of the great opportunities for the UK, as the government rightly recognised in its recently published AI Sector Deal policy paper. In it, the government outlined plans to raise total R&D investment to 2.4% of GDP by 2027.
The cash injection into research is most welcome, but we should not consider leadership in an academic field as a triumph. An academic paper that gathers dust, no matter how brilliant and well-argued its case – is pretty obsolete. More active support is required to make sure AI research findings have a practical application that can be translated into commercial and social success – on the national and international stage. ...