Cisco to fund an investment of £77 million in partnership with University College London (UCL) to embark the development of computer artificial intelligence (AI) research centre. The commitment from Downing Street (Government’s Industrial Strategy) will help to boost the computing and digital innovation in the UK.
Cisco and University College London will work together to construct the world’s largest computer AI research centre which they aim to address the modern world industry challenges and will promote the AI talent in the UK.
The AI field draws upon computer science, mathematics, psychology, linguistics, philosophy and many others.
Prime Minister Theresa May said, “The decision by Cisco to make such a significant commitment to digital innovation across the UK is welcome news and is a vote of confidence in our Modern Industrial Strategy.”
May said, “I particularly welcome the announcement of the new AI research centre in partnership with UCL. Research has shown that AI could add £232bn to the UK economy by 2030 and developments like this will help with our ambition to put the UK at the forefront of the AI and data revolution.”
Artificial intelligence (AI), sometimes called machine intelligence, is intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and other animals. In computer science, AI research is defined as the study of “intelligent agents”: any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals. Colloquially, the term “artificial intelligence” is applied when a machine mimics “cognitive” functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as “learning” and “problem-solving”.
In the twenty-first century, AI techniques have experienced a resurgence following concurrent advances in computer power, large amounts of data, and theoretical understanding; and AI techniques have become an essential part of the technology industry, helping to solve many challenging problems in computer science.