Tony Blair gave a powerful speech at the opening of Future of Britain conference from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, co-hosted with My Life My Say.
He believes that AI has the potential to significantly boost the UK’s economy by driving innovation, increasing productivity, and creating new job opportunities, emphasizing the importance of investing in AI technologies and infrastructure to stay competitive in the global market.
Artificial Intelligence has the potential to revolutionize a nation’s digital economy by driving innovation, enhancing productivity, and fostering competitiveness. By embracing AI technologies and investing in talent development, nations can unlock new opportunities for economic growth and sustainable development in the digital age.
The UK’s AI Opportunity
Blair painted a challenging picture of the UK’s economy, highlighting the significant decline in economic growth and productivity over the past decade, warning of a grim future if key changes are not made by the incoming Labour government.
He believes the solution to this is the application of AI, particularly to sectors including healthcare, education, and government, where it can drive significant savings, boost productivity, and deliver improved outcomes for citizens. He proposes transformational public sector reforms could generate £ tens to hundreds of billions over the next few years.
Britain is well placed to achieve this and leverage the potential of the technology for economic growth Blair envisions, referencing the UK’s industry strength of leading AI companies and its’ world-class universities.
However given the scale of massive global competition in this sector he urged that there is a risk of losing out with no specific government policies to support AI adoption, and called for a comprehensive 21st-century revolution with an AI-powered industrial strategy, urging the new government to embrace innovation and secure a more prosperous future for the country.
UK Ai Leaders
This includes the recent appointment of Matt Clifford, who will deliver a new AI Opportunities Action Plan to build a UK AI sector that can scale and compete on the global stage, set out how to boost take up of the technology across all parts of the economy, and consider the necessary infrastructure, talent, and data access required to drive adoption by the public and private sectors.
The government has also announced Feryal Clark as the UK’s new minister for AI and digital government – a role in which she will take on oversight of Whitehall’s core technology units.
In Scotland the Scottish AI Alliance has been set up to deliver on Scotland’s vision to be a leader in trustworthy, ethical and inclusive AI, outlined in Scotland’s AI Strategy. It’s a partnership between The Data Lab and the Scottish Government and is led by a Minister-appointed Chair and overseen by Senior Responsible Officers from The Data Lab (CEO) and the Scottish Government (CDO).
Microsoft Cloud Ai
Of course Microsoft is one of the possible vendors that can be called upon for the underlying technologies required, offering a deep suite of Cloud AI capabilities.
Furthermore Microsoft recently appointed the co-founder of the British artificial intelligence lab DeepMind as the head of a new AI division, Mustafa Suleyman, a 39 year old Brit. At the Aspen Ideas Festival, Suleyman the CEO of Microsoft AI, spoke with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin about the future of artificial intelligence and shares how he thinks humanity can use AI to its advantage.
Featured Partner: Quantexa
A keynote example of a Microsoft partner building on these capabilities is Quantexa. They utilize Ai to scan billions of bank transactions to identify fraud. Their Contextual Decision Intelligence (CDI) runs atop Azure and it’s AI modules to power solutions for industries like Government, to address complex data scenarios for the public sector like money laundering and claims fraud.
The ambition of the UK Government is to foster and grow a portfolio of AI tech unicorns, with one of the exemplars being Quantexa, becoming the only venture to achieve this status in 2023 after raising $129 million in a series E funding round.
The BBC comments that the UK has a long history of pioneering ground-breaking technologies but not necessarily of successfully commercializing them. Quantexa offers the inspiring leadership that is blazing a trail for others to follow and emulate.