Love the upbeat article, and the mention of headline figures of good money amounts.
But, it needs to get delivered outside of London, to Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Exeter, Belfast, Glasgow. The UK is the only place I know running AI accelerators with no money for the teams, meanwhile in Berlin there is a stipend of 2k a month+. It doesn't make any sense, and leaves startups for the rich. If money just goes to the 3-4 big consultancies it will not make any difference apart from keeping London's house prices inflated.
I hope it does help turn the UK around, and help keep the normal everyday humans in charge of AI.
I've a suspicions that so much of the developmental work is and will be done by a workforce that skews male, while so much of the user population will skew female. Money skews male, mostly, and the giant LLMs will skew male.
How is all this to benefit the female majority of the population, their work, their experience and their possibilities?
100% this Martha! “Not being interested in tech” is the new “not being interested in politics.” You can engage with it or have it done to and on behalf of you. Bringing in the voices of the reluctant, fearful and / or digitally marginalized people is also incredibly important. Disabled people for example have much to gain and everything to lose depending on the extent to which their input and perspectives are drawn in and welcomed. It would be great to catch up on this sometime and kick around ideas for how we can make that more intentional in these very fast moving and life changing times.
Agree about tech impact, and thank you for all you do to consistently band the drum about this.
However, more has to be done about our UK capital markets for tech entrepreneurs to be motivated to create, scale and stay in the UK. Brave, fresh, innovative thinking that is uniquely British needs to emerge to keep the UK relevant on the world, but especially to the younger generations of UK entrepreneurs here. Many are findingi it increasingly compelling to build on shores other than the UK where regulations are friendlier, taxes are lower, and they feel genuinely valued and part of a community.
I enjoyed the article very much - the conundrum as you mentioned is how individuals / SMEs / SMBs get on the train. Where do these companies go for help? There needs to be signposts everywhere via a continual campaign to get the country tooled up ASAP
You’re right - too often people writing like me just casually say get involved, it’s up to us etc etc - i just meant it is worth understanding and being educated about what they are announcing and judging their performance partly on it. When you vote predominately but also as you assess progress. Ps. You sound v impressive
Umm... as a busy normal person who does community and charity work, and votes when allowed, I'm puzzled as to what 'getting involved' might mean? What are you suggesting we do about this 'blizzard of tech policy'?
This is a terrific analysis. The other day I asked my colleagues at a conference how many of them use AI in their day to day job and it was about 98%. I then asked how many of their companies had an AI governance policy that they had to follow? It was 62%. Making sure there's regulation and governance on AI will become increasingly important.
Love this article and totally agree with you Martha. I think more needs to be done on education and awareness about AI if we are to move forward effectively in the UK
You are absolutely right - fundamental
Love the upbeat article, and the mention of headline figures of good money amounts.
But, it needs to get delivered outside of London, to Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Exeter, Belfast, Glasgow. The UK is the only place I know running AI accelerators with no money for the teams, meanwhile in Berlin there is a stipend of 2k a month+. It doesn't make any sense, and leaves startups for the rich. If money just goes to the 3-4 big consultancies it will not make any difference apart from keeping London's house prices inflated.
I hope it does help turn the UK around, and help keep the normal everyday humans in charge of AI.
I've a suspicions that so much of the developmental work is and will be done by a workforce that skews male, while so much of the user population will skew female. Money skews male, mostly, and the giant LLMs will skew male.
How is all this to benefit the female majority of the population, their work, their experience and their possibilities?
You should be suspicious - you are absolutely right!
100% this Martha! “Not being interested in tech” is the new “not being interested in politics.” You can engage with it or have it done to and on behalf of you. Bringing in the voices of the reluctant, fearful and / or digitally marginalized people is also incredibly important. Disabled people for example have much to gain and everything to lose depending on the extent to which their input and perspectives are drawn in and welcomed. It would be great to catch up on this sometime and kick around ideas for how we can make that more intentional in these very fast moving and life changing times.
Excellent summary - it matters to us all!
Agree about tech impact, and thank you for all you do to consistently band the drum about this.
However, more has to be done about our UK capital markets for tech entrepreneurs to be motivated to create, scale and stay in the UK. Brave, fresh, innovative thinking that is uniquely British needs to emerge to keep the UK relevant on the world, but especially to the younger generations of UK entrepreneurs here. Many are findingi it increasingly compelling to build on shores other than the UK where regulations are friendlier, taxes are lower, and they feel genuinely valued and part of a community.
Yes, i agree but that’s a slightly different point - not less important though
I enjoyed the article very much - the conundrum as you mentioned is how individuals / SMEs / SMBs get on the train. Where do these companies go for help? There needs to be signposts everywhere via a continual campaign to get the country tooled up ASAP
Yes this is something i have been trying to work through with the bcc… huge opportunity
Brilliant and so right . Such a positive sign for all of our and our children’s futures. Happy Tech week and Yellow day xxx
You’re right - too often people writing like me just casually say get involved, it’s up to us etc etc - i just meant it is worth understanding and being educated about what they are announcing and judging their performance partly on it. When you vote predominately but also as you assess progress. Ps. You sound v impressive
Umm... as a busy normal person who does community and charity work, and votes when allowed, I'm puzzled as to what 'getting involved' might mean? What are you suggesting we do about this 'blizzard of tech policy'?
This is a terrific analysis. The other day I asked my colleagues at a conference how many of them use AI in their day to day job and it was about 98%. I then asked how many of their companies had an AI governance policy that they had to follow? It was 62%. Making sure there's regulation and governance on AI will become increasingly important.
Love this article and totally agree with you Martha. I think more needs to be done on education and awareness about AI if we are to move forward effectively in the UK