The UK government is going to lead a "major review" into what artificial intelligence means for the country's economy as part of its long-awaited Digital Strategy.
Officials at the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) say its review will look at how the government and firms can work together to "back the technology" in the coming years.
It is claimed, based on figures from Accenture, that AI could add £654 billion to the UK's economy by 2035. While research from the think tank Reform has suggested 250,000 public sector jobs administration jobs could be replaced by chat bots, artificial intelligence, and automation by 2030.
The review will be led by the University of Southampton's computer science professor Wendy Hall and Jerome Pesenti from BenevolentAI.
“There has been a lot of unwarranted negative hype around Artificial Intelligence (AI), but it has the ability to drive enormous growth for the UK economy, create jobs, foster new skills, positively transform every industry and retain Britain’s status as a world leader in innovative technology," Pesenti said.
The confirmation of the AI review is expected to take place in the government's Digital Strategy set to be published on March 1 by secretary of state for culture Karen Bradley.
In December 2015, the then digital economy minister Ed Vaizey announced the government would announce a Digital Strategy that would last for five years and highlight "the agenda for the rest of the Parliament on digital".
At the time, Vaizey said the Strategy would be published "early next year" – in the first part of 2016. The announcement of the strategy followed a £450 million funding boost for the Government Digital Service.
However, the report has been consistently delayed. In July 2016, a House of Commons committee produced a review of 'The Digital Economy,' which said it hoped the Digital Strategy would be published "as soon as possible" and also take into account the fall-out from Brexit.
At the start of 2017, the Science and Technology committee wrote to Matt Hancock, the minister for digital and culture policy to state its unhappiness with the delays. The committee's chair, Stephen Metcalfe, said there was "disappointment" of a "continued absence" around the "long-promised" report.
"In March 2016 Vaizey told us the Strategy was already written and awaiting a publication slot in the Downing Street 'grid'," the letter said.
Elsewhere in the strategy, the Government is expected to confirm a previously announced £17.3m of research money to develop robotics and artificial intelligence technologies across the UK. The original announcement of the Digital Strategy didn't mention either robotics or artificial intelligence.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
