A national laboratory for artificial intelligence research should be created to help reduce the UK’s huge reliance on Google DeepMind, a new report by Sir Tony Blair and Lord Hague of Richmond recommends.
Much of the UK’s academic research on AI is currently led by the Alan Turing Institute, the country’s national institute for data science and AI, which is backed by more than a dozen leading research universities and funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.
However, in a wide-ranging report on how Britain can improve its AI performance, published on 13 June, the two former political leaders argue that the “Alan Turing Institute has demonstrably not kept the UK at the cutting edge of international AI developments” and its “functions should be wound down and a new endeavour, Sentinel, should be funded”.
Sentinel, the proposed national AI laboratory, would “test, understand and control safe AI, collaborating with the private sector and complementing its work”, explain Sir Tony and Lord Hague.
