Artificial intelligence expert and entrepreneur Ian Hogarth has been appointed the first chairman of the UK’s £100 million AI Foundation Model Task Force. The group is responsible for leading AI safety research as part of a push to promote the use of these advanced technologies across the UK economy. This comes as governments seek to accelerate the use of AI in the public sector to boost growth and cut costs.
First announced earlier this year, the UK AI Task Force brings together expertise from government, industry and academia to develop an AI white paper and responsible standards and governance that can be used to underpin the UK’s approach to technology regulation. is intended to develop
In addition to being a longtime investor in artificial intelligence, Hogarth has also been critical of the speed of adoption and development of advanced forms of AI, including artificial general intelligence (AGI). Commenting on the announcement of his appointment, he said: “The Prime Minister has set out a bold vision for the UK to significantly strengthen the AI safety sector, which has hitherto been under-resourced, despite accelerating AI capabilities. ‘He said.
Rishi Sunak has pushed the agenda that the UK should be home to AI, safety, research and regulation, including announcing that the UK will host a world summit. The summit was scheduled to take place in the fall, but was postponed to winter last week, when national and business leaders will come together to discuss and make sense of artificial intelligence with the aim of developing artificial intelligence. was reported to be An international standard for the regulation of technology.
It is designed around the fact that the UK is already home to some of the world’s largest underlying model labs, including nearly all of Google’s AI business through DeepMind. Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot, has announced plans to open its European headquarters in the UK, while OpenAI has an office in London.
The new Task Force is designed on the same model as the Vaccine Task Force launched at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Governments have been given agility and delegation of authority to make decisions, investments and policy proposals in a more agile way than is possible.
UK AI task force chair sells AI concession
Hogarth has been a co-author of the annual AI report since its launch in 2018. This report contains an overview of artificial intelligence advances and their development. He is also a visiting professor at his UCL covering areas such as technology, entrepreneurship and AI, and founded the startup SongKick and his VC firm Plural.
I am honored to have been appointed Chair of the UK AI Foundation Model Taskforce.
A thread about why I do this and how you can help us. https://t.co/SAuaml13cD
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— Ian Hogarth (@soundboy) June 18, 2023
He says he has invested in more than 50 artificial intelligence startups through Plural. Before becoming chairman of the AI Task Force, Hogarth agreed to exit companies building foundational models or foundational model safety tools. Similar rules apply to other participating members to mitigate potential bias.
This task force will focus on safety issues surrounding foundational AI models. This includes large language models that power services such as ChatGPT and Google Bard. The focus is on general-purpose systems trained on large datasets that can be applied to tasks across the economy, not just those built for specific purposes.
This includes building UK capacity in a foundational model, leveraging existing strengths in areas such as safety and R&D opportunities across the public and private sectors.
This complements the work already done by companies like Google and Anthropic, who have existing safeguards built into their systems to ensure safety and accountability. These companies have also agreed to give the Task Force and its affiliated researchers access to early pre-release versions of the new models they are building. Other organizations, such as the Alan Turing Institute, plan to continue their broad AI safety and standards efforts through the AI Standards Hub announced earlier this year.
Hogarth’s appointment as task force chairman comes amid government interest in accelerating the adoption and use of AI in public services. Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt said productivity gains from AI could help fund tax cuts ahead of the 2024 general election.
of FT Health Secretary Steve Barclay is said to share similar views on NHS transformation, it reported this weekend. In particular, AI can be used to increase productivity without adding staff or forcing existing staff to do more work.
Announcing the appointment of Hogarth to chair the task force, Sunak said, “The more advanced artificial intelligence we have, the more opportunities we have to grow the economy and provide better public services. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to ensure that AI is developed safely and responsibly.”
Homepage image: Rishi Sunak speaking at London Tech Week. Image credit: Number 10 Press Office on Flickr
