Looking back at the development status of 2018 AI technology in the UK

As a technology company focused on AI, the state's support for AI technology development and policy is very important to us. In fact, the government, academic institutions, investors and the entire UK ecosystem are driving this field. The UK is currently a global leader in the AI field and hopes to play a bigger role in the future.

2018 is a crucial year for AI to develop in the UK, so we want to spend some time sharing some of the major events that have taken place in the past 12 months.

Earlier this year, British Prime Minister Theresa May said at the Davos Forum: "The UK needs to develop into a leader in the AI ​​field and make more companies successful. In the past three years, we can see many new ones every week. The established AI startup company, we will encourage investment in these startups, spend 45 million pounds to develop doctoral degrees in AI related disciplines, and strive to train at least 200 relevant talents each year by 2020-21."

Obviously education is the driving force behind AI's continuous innovation. We must train the next generation of data scientists. At Imagination, we always believe in the importance of education. We have developed a certification program for graduates and students. I hope everyone will participate. Tell others.

Prime Minister Theresa also announced at the Davos Forum that Britain will join the World Economic Forum's new board of directors on AI. She emphasized the importance of developing AI development standards, such as how we ensure that algorithms are not affected by developer bias. . To this end, she announced that the newly established Data Ethics and Innovation Center (CDEI) will work closely with international partners to reach a consensus on how to ensure the promotion of AI security, ethics and innovation.

At Imagination, we believe that ethics is a critical issue, because AI has almost penetrated into every aspect of our lives. Earlier in an article on the Great Innovation Center website, Andrew Grant (Imagination Autopilot AI Ethics Division) The director stressed: "No manufacturer is willing to take responsibility for AI ethics litigation. For example, AI wants to hit another child in order to avoid hitting a child. This is the dilemma of autonomous driving! - AI, car manufacturer, driver, program The responsibility of the person or other person who sets the rules for autonomous driving? If the AI ​​will self-learn, how is the responsibility defined? The technical aspects are mature, so the moral, legal, and decision-making aspects need to be perfected."

Andrew Grant from Imagination (second from right)

A seminar on the impact of AI on the UK economy

Throughout 2018, we continued to see the development of AI-related policies, including the House of Lords AI report released in March and the Hall-Pesenti report at the end of 2017, which provided in-depth investigations into future policy development.

The Ada (Ada Lovelace Institute) research institute was founded in 2018. According to its prospectus, Ada will promote public understanding of artificial intelligence and data-driven technologies that affect different groups of society. It will provide some guidance for the development and promotion of these technologies, and will conduct long-term research and thinking. Its core purpose is to make data drive better to promote social development.

In December, UKRI, the UK research and innovation agency, announced a project that was supported by a strategic fund of £48 million and will use a data-driven approach to drive new industry revolutions and change the way work is done in the 21st century. A new digital industrial revolution.

The UK government's huge investment in the AI ​​sector includes working with leading companies in the industry to develop policies. In the past 18 months, Imagination's investment has focused on promoting AI technology development and AI talent development. It also participated in the House of Lords AI group meeting. In the published written report, Mr. Grant pointed out that “AI is the way of working in the future. And the employment issue provides a major problem, AI can automate the work, so what do people need to do?"

Due to the time, we are not here to discuss the development of the AI ​​policy, but we will make some new suggestions to the Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence. At least we see that the British government and some institutions are investing heavily in the UK. Development of aspects.

AI's development in the UK healthcare sector

One of the UK's leading markets in the AI ​​sector is healthcare. In May, Teresa May said: "The UK will use big data, AI and continuous innovation to change diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and dementia by 2030. Prevention, early diagnosis and treatment."

In November, the UK announced that it will open five AI medical centers nationwide in 2019 to use AI to speed up disease detection and improve treatment conditions. In December, the UK government announced that a second life sciences institution would receive more than £1.3 billion in funding. AI technology researches and develops the next generation of early disease detection technology for the entire industry. In addition, a trial at the Moorfield Eye Hospital in London found that AI technology can accurately diagnose eye diseases like some experts.

In addition to using AI technology for diagnosing and detecting disease, the National Health Service (NHS) sees the use of AI technology to manage assets and optimize workflows with the goal of improving the entire healthcare system. According to reports, the East Suffolk County and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust Fund (ESNEFT) has partnered with London's Stoneton to have two general practitioners handle the first phase of referral time from 15-20 minutes. Shorten to 5 minutes.

AI's situation in academia

The UK has some leading universities in machine learning and AI, and there are 13 universities in London offering AI-related degrees. In 2018, the University of London (UCL) announced that it will open a new AI Complex, hosted by its School of Computer Science, and more than 200 University of London researchers will participate in the creation of an advanced R&D and learning center. Imperial College London is also recognized as a global leader in AI research, with more than 600 employees working on AI-related projects.

The UK's advances in AI research and development have led to the development of institutions such as the Alan Turing Institute, the National Data Science and AI Research Center, and the establishment of new institutions dedicated to the impact of artificial intelligence on humans and society. Research, which has ignited a wave of British universities, such as the establishment of the AI ​​Risk Research Center at Cambridge University and the Human Future Research Institute at Oxford University. The latter two organizations and 12 other global institutions or companies jointly issued a report in 2018: "The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Prediction, Prevention, and Mitigation," which describes how attackers use malicious intelligence in a malicious manner. And to explore how we should mitigate such threats as a whole, we hope that you will review this report and consider the issues in Appendix B that require further research. The key is that we need more experts to participate.

United Kingdom (UK): Leadership Intelligence This Revolution

In October, the Great Innovation Center and the Deep Knowledge Analysis Center of the United Kingdom and the All-Party Parliamentary Artificial Intelligence Group released a report entitled “The British Artificial Intelligence Industry in 2018”. According to reports, the UK’s leading position in artificial intelligence is certain. The extent is that the global artificial intelligence industry has invested 3.8 billion pounds and is still growing. Lord clarke-jones, co-chairman of the British Parliament's artificial intelligence group, commented on the report: "We have now reached a turning point that can reasonably be described as a Cambrian explosion in artificial intelligence in the UK."

A recent study by PitchBook, an authoritative data organization in Silicon Valley, found that from 2015 to 2017, artificial intelligence developers in London saw an increase of more than 200% in venture capital in the field.

In addition to investment, other key factors that make the UK a world leader in artificial intelligence include larger data, more powerful computing power, and a large pool of experts with strong expertise. In fact, a study by artificial intelligence research institute JF Gagne in February 2018 found that the number of talents with high-level artificial intelligence in the UK ranks second in the world.

However, as Wendy Hall recently pointed out in an article published in Wired magazine, “Like many other countries, there are still some gaps in artificial intelligence technology in the UK. If we want to continue to be at the forefront of artificial intelligence innovation, then we must narrow this gap."

Due to skill gaps, almost every artificial intelligence company is looking for professional skills experts, including Imagination. So, if you are interested in joining a growing team of experts dedicated to PowerVR vision and AI products (such as the PowerVR Series3NX series of neural network accelerators), please visit our recruitment website: https://www.imgtec.com /careers/

Looking to the future

It is clear that artificial intelligence will continue to develop in 2019, and the news on speculation may be less. As an industry, we need to focus on continuous technological advancement and build our understanding of potential risks in the process of quickly building true artificial intelligence. For Imagination, we are happy to be part of the AI ​​revolution and will be in the future. Continuous innovation focuses on the better future and responsibilities of human society.