After China and The United States, The UK is in the best position to take advantage of the developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) which will benefit the country across numerous sectors. 

This is how Sana Khareghani Head, Office for Artificial Intelligence describes the role of AI:

“AI technologies present opportunities for the UK economy not only in productivity gain but also in market value and right now we are really looking at the role of AI technologies in helping us through recovery from the pandemic”

However, these opportunities are not obvious to the general public and because of this, the idea of Artificial Intelligence is not particularly appealing.

There are reasonable concerns about the development of Artificial Intelligence including worries about machines replacing humans. For example using machinery, like self checkout services, to carry out tasks that people were previously hired for, or using algorithms to calculate exam results which ended up being inaccurate and discriminatory.

Image credit: Reuters

Other fears such as a robot takeover, like in the movies, are not as feasible, but this isn't entirely the fault of the public as there has been a lack of reliable resources to clarify the purpose of increasing the use of Artificial Intelligence into our daily lives. This is something that many organizations are aware of and working on in order to gain public trust.

These concerns and issues were critical points of discussion when on 10th Sept 2020, several key figures from across UK government departments, educational institutions and private and public sectors gathered to discuss the topic of Developing artificial intelligence technologies in the UK at a policy conference hosted by Westminster eForum.

Although there has been pushback from the public about Artificial Intelligence, it seems that we are not fully aware of how much we are already using. AI is already being used for the services we rely on from companies like Ocado, described by Professor Dame Wendy Hall as a  robot farm, and others  like Rolls Royce and Jaguar Land Rover.

All the big manufacturing companies are becoming AI companies. The defence and security sector is all about AI these days.  We need to change the rhetoric on what is an AI company. 

Professor Dame Wendy Hall,Regius Professor of Computer Science, University of Southampton; AI Skills Champion for the UK and Chair, Ada Lovelace Institute

Whether known to the public or not, Artificial Intelligence has also been a key player in the Covid-19 response and will be in the aftermath. The NHS Artificial Intelligence Lab has been working on a number of different ways to combat the virus. The main one being creating a test imaging database to help understand the virus better and to create technologies to ensure infected patients get the best treatment possible. As well as the NHS COVID-19 app, the  NHS AI Lab has published a range of resources to make sure local NHS centers aske the right questions and purchase the correct products to help make informed decisions.

Image credit: NHS

On the sharing of information, Sana Khareghani Head, Office for Artificial Intelligence stated that:

the ability to share information quickly, efficiently and ethically, has saved lives. 

Despite there being many positives of Artificial Intelligence, there is still work that needs to be done in order to gain public trust, and adopt the usage fully. This is not ignored by those championing the development of Artificial Intelligence, in fact many steps to building this trust are proposed, including accountability if any of the technologies make any errors. 

Jeni Tennison Vice President and Chief Strategy Advisor, Open Data Institute suggests that in order for the use of Artificial Intelligence to develop and be adopted by the public there needs to be a:

regulatory environment ensuring there's good enforcement, ensuring there's real redress [...] if ai goes wrong.

Jeni Tennison also proposes giving real representation to individuals and communities and thus showing how artificial intelligence is and can affect them. This is also essential in building trust.

There also needs to be transparency and guidance:

“we do need to have transparency particularly in process.. That does not mean the same thing as having our technology transparent.

Dr David Snelling Fujitsu Fellow and Programme Director, Artificial Intelligence, Fujitsu

Across the board, it was agreed that with the development of Artificial Intelligence comes the need to be able to win over the trust of the general public, which can be done with the right regulations, transparency in process, ensuring integrity in how the technologies are used, and developing AI technologies that provide diverse and inclusive opportunities for all.

As an organization working on a collaborative project with Charlton Manor Primary School, 2020Dentistry has a keen interest in how the adoption of AI will assist in the effective tackling of childhood obesity and other preventable conditions. The aim of the project is to investigate the causal links between teaching a food based curriculum such as Now we are cooking! Delivering the National Curriculum through Food and combating childhood obesity.  The project is heavily reliant on generating qualitative data,  which will be collected, analyzed and in some instances, processed using algorithms to understand patterns of changing eating behaviour.  From this conference, valuable insights have been gained on the importance of accountability and transparency to establish trust with the parents of the children, whose data will be processed using AI technologies, to develop the means for producing solutions and remedies. 

The potential of using Artificial Intelligence in our lives on a daily basis is exciting and with the right regulatory frameworks and the institutions to enforce actions when things go wrong or the technology is misused, the public should feel more confident in embracing it.

Written and edited by Yejide Adeoye (Digital Reporter) and Kiah Olowu (Digital Reporting intern)