What the government's AI strategy means for the private sector
The National AI Strategy aims to make ‘Britain a global AI superpower' but this will require more collaboration between public and private sectors
In September 2021, the UK government published its National AI Strategy, a ten-year roadmap to make Britain a global AI superpower. Emerging technologies like machine learning and AI already have an impact on how we live, work and do business, and in the future will do even more so.
Within the strategy, the government has also recognised the ways it will need to support the economy as the increased use of AI changes the skills demands on businesses. It's promising to see government-level recognition of both AI's promise, but also the necessary steps to ensuring it has a positive impact at scale, economically and socially. Research and development, as well as efforts around applied AI within industry, will open up new job opportunities and transform existing employment.
From the research lab to the real world
One of the key strands of the strategy is supporting the transition to an AI-enabled economy. While the cutting-edge research into new algorithms and how things like robotics could one day harness AI is important, some of these technologies are already starting to drive real business outcomes. Because the possible uses of the technology are so varied, it's helpful to think about AI in a domain-specific way and start from there. For example, the financial industries are already relying on AI to identify and manage risks. Increasing numbers of financial transactions in the world's markets are being completed with the support of algorithms, responding to wider market changes automatically. As much as 80 per cent of overall trading volume is generated through algorithmic means in the world's most developed financial markets.
AI also makes the possibility of self-operating and healing computer networks feasible. Following internal shocks like device malfunctions or settings becoming misconfigured, traffic could be routed in other directions while the problem is solved. Machine learning (ML) algorithms are also being used for secure data sharing, finding malware inside encrypted traffic without decrypting it. This is all before you mention the explosion in the use of AI that we've seen within collaboration technologies. Automatic translation, adaptive noise cancellation, and closed captioning have all become more commonplace in our video calls over the past year, and these features have been driven largely by AI and ML.
Democratising AI
These innovations have to start somewhere and concepts only become reality if the right talent is in place with the resources to explore, experiment and learn from what's gone before. Building future applied AI concepts will take close collaboration between the public and private sectors, to make sure there's an easy path for technologies to make their way from the research lab straight into real-world applications and software.
As the National AI Strategy addresses, the UK's academic and commercial prowess in related disciplines is something we should all be proud of. We have the third highest number of AI companies in the world, after the US and China, according to Stanford University's AI Index Report. UK AI companies are making breakthroughs in all manner of areas: from cybersecurity and semiconductors to autonomous vehicles and healthcare.
While there are many AI trailblazers in the UK that actively develop and hold these technologies at the very centre of what they do, there's still plenty of work to be done to democratise AI. However, many businesses are only just beginning to process what it takes for them to adopt AI and ML. While some details such as funding are still to be made clear, the strategy has given industry greater clarity on the country's wider direction of travel. It means they can be more confident in committing not just to support more research, but also in working to apply learnings from that research to activities in the real world.
At Cisco, we're happy to play our part in supporting this innovation through the long-standing partnership that we've had with University College London (UCL) for the past 30 years. UCL is one of the world's leading AI research organisations, and the two organisations have partnered to establish a virtual Global Centre of Excellence. The Centre will see us provide research funding for UCL academics, focused on the application of AI primarily in the fields of collaboration technology, networking and cybersecurity. By combining the two organisations' world-class expertise in AI, the Centre aims to play a pivotal role in supporting the National AI Strategy's plan to make ‘Britain a global AI superpower', and generate positive impacts across industries and sectors.
Chintan Patel is Chief Technologist, Cisco UK & Ireland