UK AI sector achieved record funding in Q2 2022

New data from Tech Nation and Dealroom found that VC investment in UK AI companies hit a record in Q2 2022 and is on track to at least equal last year.

Around 2,009 AI companies are based in the UK, the AI capital of Europe. Renowned companies include Graphcore, BenevolentAI, Darktrace, Wayve, and DeepMind.

Last year saw a record investment of £6.6 billion flow into UK AI companies. In 2022 so far, £3.2 billion has been invested. Tech Nation notes that investment into...

6 October 2022 | Applications

AI Expo: Protecting ethical standards in the age of AI

Rapid advancements in AI require keeping high ethical standards, as much for legal reasons as moral.

During a session at this year’s AI & Big Data Expo Europe, a panel of experts provided their views on what businesses need to consider before deploying artificial intelligence.

Here’s a list of the panel’s participants:

Moderator: Frans van Bruggen, Policy Officer for AI and FinTech at De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB)Aoibhinn Reddington, Artificial...

21 September 2022 | Ethics & Society

AI discovers over 20K taxable French swimming pools

The French government is successfully using AI to discover taxable swimming pools.

IT firm Capgemini worked with Google to create the AI which analyses aerial photos taken by France’s National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information, identifies pools, and then cross-references them with national tax and property registries.

So far, the project has spotted 20,356 undeclared swimming pools. The government has used the data to collect almost €10 million in...

30 August 2022 | Applications

Lyft exec will head the Pentagon’s AI efforts

Craig Martell, Head of Machine Learning at Lyft, is set to head the Pentagon’s AI efforts.

Breaking Defense first broke the news after learning Martell was destined to be named as the Pentagon’s new chief digital and AI officer.

Martell has significant AI industry experience – leading efforts at not just Lyft but also Dropbox and LinkedIn – but has no experience navigating public-sector bureaucracy. The Pentagon is going to be very much “in at the deep-end”...

26 April 2022 | Artificial Intelligence

DCMS spent 75% more on data scientists in 2021

Investments in data scientists by the UK’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) continue to increase rapidly.

The data, retrieved by the Parliament Street think tank, shows that DCMS has spent an estimated £20,606,100 on data scientist and data analyst roles between 2017 and 2021.

Niall Crosby, CEO of AG Grid, commented:

“Today’s digital world creates a lot of data, and the ability to process, understand, and make decisions based on...

22 April 2022 | Legislation & Government

Ukraine harnesses Clearview AI to uncover assailants and identify the fallen

Ukraine is using Clearview AI’s facial recognition software to uncover Russian assailants and identify Ukrainians who’ve sadly lost their lives in the conflict.

The company’s chief executive, Hoan Ton-That, told Reuters that Ukraine’s defence ministry began using the software on Saturday.

Clearview AI’s facial recognition system is controversial but indisputably powerful—using billions of images scraped from the web to identify just about anyone. Ton-That...

14 March 2022 | Artificial Intelligence

The EU’s AI rules will likely take over a year to be agreed

Rules governing the use of artificial intelligence across the EU will likely take over a year to be agreed upon.

Last year, the European Commission drafted AI laws. While the US and China are set to dominate AI development with their vast resources, economic might, and light-touch regulation, European rivals – including the UK and EU members – believe they can lead in ethical standards.

In the draft of the EU regulations, companies that are found guilty of AI misuse...

17 February 2022 | Applications

AI bias harms over a third of businesses, 81% want more regulation

AI bias is already harming businesses and there’s significant appetite for more regulation to help counter the problem.

The findings come from the State of AI Bias report by DataRobot in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and global academic leaders. The report involved responses from over 350 organisations across industries.

Kay Firth-Butterfield, Head of AI and Machine Learning at the World Economic Forum, said: 

“DataRobot’s research...

20 January 2022 | Artificial Intelligence

Making the UK an AI superpower

The British technology sector enjoyed its best year of investment yet, attracting £29.4 billion in 2021. So, why hasn’t the UK’s AI and tech scene made it to the same global superpower status that we see from China, Russia, and the US?

We don’t need to wait for the results of the government’s recent National AI Strategy, to know that deeper change is needed to really propel the industry forward. To create an AI scene that can compete on the world stage, education,...

21 December 2021 | Artificial Intelligence

SenseTime prepares to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange

Chinese AI giant SenseTime has received regulatory approval to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE).

SenseTime is the world’s most-funded AI firm and has attracted large investments in part due to providing technology for the Chinese government’s vast surveillance network.

The company’s Viper system aims to process and analyse over 100,000 simultaneous real-time streams from traffic cameras, ATMs, and more to automatically tag and keep track of...

24 November 2021 | Artificial Intelligence