NEWS: Govt announces AI deal with businesses

NEWS: Govt announces AI deal with business

A £1bn deal between government and industry has been announced by Business Secretary Greg Clark and Digital Secretary Matt Hancock to put the UK at the forefront of developments in artificial intelligence.

It includes more than £300 million of newly allocated government funding for AI research to make the UK a global leader in this technology. The Evening Standard recently called London "a global powerhouse of AI", with companies such as Deep Mind, ASI Data Science and Moonshot CVE celebrated for establishing the capital's international reputation in this field.

More than 50 leading technology companies and organisations have contributed to the development of an worth almost £1 billion, including almost £300 million of private sector investment into UK sector

In addition, 1,000 new government funded AI PhDs will keep the UK at the forefront of innovation and build UK status as AI research hotspot.

Building on the commitment made in the government’s modern Industrial Strategy and its AI Grand Challenge, the deal marks the first phase of a major innovation-focused investment drive in AI which aims to help the UK seize the £232 billion opportunity AI offers the UK economy by 2030, equivalent to 10% of GDP.

The Artificial intelligence Sector Deal follows record levels of investments into UK tech in 2017 and encompasses new investments such as:

• Japanese venture capital firm Global Brain opening its first European HQ in the UK and investing £35 million in UK deep-tech start-ups
• The University of Cambridge opening a new £10 million AI supercomputer and making its infrastructure available to businesses
• Top-ranking Vancouver-based venture capital firm Chrysalix, is also going to establish a European HQ in the UK and use it to invest up to £110 million in AI and robotics
• The Alan Turing Institute and Rolls-Royce will jointly-run research projects exploring: how data science can be applied at scale, the application of AIacross supply chains, data-centric engineering and predictive maintenance, and the role of data analytics and AI in science

Download a full report on the AI deal here.