Scotland’s ethical AI sector ‘open for business’, says innovation minister

Scotland’s ethical AI sector ‘open for business’, says innovation minister

Innovation minister Richard Lochhead has said Scotland is ready to become a leading hub for developing ethical AI.

Hosting the CogX event at Scotland House in London, he explained the supportive environement being built for the industry, which includes a £24m investment from the Scottish Government into the Data Lab - a centre for innovation in data science and AI.

Commenting further on Scotland’s potential he said: “We are, first and foremost, a land of invention, a pioneer in technology and an ideal place to invest and grow an AI business.”

This is not the first funding the Scottish Government has offered to the sector, as it recently invested £59m in the programmes for start-ups, CivTech, and a further £1.4m into The National Robotarium. Launched via a partnership between Heriot-watt University and The University of Edinburgh, the Centre for Robotics and AI Research looks to solve global challenges.

Lochhead said: “Scotland is an outward-looking nation and is open for business. While rising to the challenges of this rapidly evolving technology, we are also embracing the unprecedented economic opportunity it presents - just as we did for previous scientific and industrial revolutions.”

CogX is a three-day conference offering an opportunity for sector stakeholders to network. One of their three different summits focuses on AI, and DepTech explores “cutting-edge advancements, innovations, and their implications across different industries”.

Lochhead also officially opened the University of Glasgow’s new Centre for Data Science and AI earlier this week.

He added: “Scotland gets AI. Our universities’ AI research and teaching have been ranked as world-class since the early formation of the sector, while Edinburgh was recently ranked the UK’s most ‘AI-ready’ city in the UK.