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Side note: what are people’s opinions of the UK regarding AI now? Completely insignificant? I feel the UK has taken a nosedive over at least the past 30 years.

HPsquared 2y ago
DeepMind has made some really amazing stuff. The UK will need to be an AI hotspot if we want to continue being a financial centre.
- teamonkey 2y ago
  The UK is a financial (and legal) centre because of its regulations. They make the UK a trustworkthy broker for international companies to deal with. (Also its deregulations, making it easy to squirrel money away to tax havens.) Not sure why AI would help there.
- tim333 2y ago
  The trouble in the UK is we have good academics like Hassabis at Deepmind but are not as competitive in business hene Deepmind being bought by Google.
kypro 2y ago
We have the talent, but lack the vision to ever build something significant. Founders are more likely to want to tackle smaller problems with a more secure business model. Investors are much less likely to back high-risk/high-reward speculative business propositions. Government will insist that we need to go slow and steady and prioritise goals like inclusivity and safety over performance. The public will be sceptical of any large AI company, especially if they're pushing regulatory boundaries, and demand government intervention.
captainbland 2y ago
It's not an AI specific thing. The UK's investment in harder science/tech seems to be seriously anemic. Every job posting I see seems to be some variation on the theme of pumping some representation of money around or retail/ecomm/HR management.
- HPsquared 2y ago
  That activity is a major "export" of ours, though.
f1shy 2y ago
In general, in all related to CS and software the UK is ages ahead of the mainland Europe. Also in AI. But still of course way behind US.
- belter 2y ago
  > In general, in all related to CS and software the UK is ages ahead of the mainland Europe You are you going to have to support this statement a little bit better :-)
  - Cumpiler69 2y ago
    How about that the Danish pharma giant Novo Nordisk, makers of Ozempic, is opening their AI/ML lab in London next to DeepMind and other tech giants, instead of in its back yard? The only one close to UK in Europe is probably Switzerland and France but they too are mostly focused on research in universities rather than pushing out commercial products the way the US is exceeding at. Everyone else is not even in the game.
    - f1shy 2y ago
      Exactly nr 2 is Switzerland with ETH. Both together with France at a VERY academic level. Next maybe far far away Italy and Germany in very different fields, but at levels comparable (if not worse) with south America, like Chile Argentina Brasil and Uruguay
  - f1shy 2y ago
    Well, you can try to do a job search in those countries, and look at titles and the job descriptions. Also looknat the curriculums of universities in those countries, and don’t be fooled by the official sites. Look in forums how good they are in AI topics.
    - munksbeer 2y ago
      I did the interviews for grad recruitment in tech at a big investment bank in London. The best maths and computer science graduates where frequently from the Eastern European countries.
yuumei 2y ago
The government wants to introduce a law to make it illegal to possess AI tools that are capable of CSAM output. As we know this is impossible, any company starting in the UK with AI will likely fail compared to other countries if this law passes. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8d90qe4nylo https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8d90qe4nylo
- pinoy420 2y ago
  I scariest part of this which I do not see people worried about, is the one sentence about requiring suspects to open their phones at the border for inspection.
  - HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
    Opening phones at borders is already common practice everywhere, including the US. Unless you're a citizen countries don't have to let you in.
krageon 2y ago
They did brexit and started mattering even less than they already did: Not at all.

HPsquared 2y ago

DeepMind has made some really amazing stuff. The UK will need to be an AI hotspot if we want to continue being a financial centre.

teamonkey 2y ago
The UK is a financial (and legal) centre because of its regulations. They make the UK a trustworkthy broker for international companies to deal with. (Also its deregulations, making it easy to squirrel money away to tax havens.) Not sure why AI would help there.
tim333 2y ago
The trouble in the UK is we have good academics like Hassabis at Deepmind but are not as competitive in business hene Deepmind being bought by Google.

kypro 2y ago

We have the talent, but lack the vision to ever build something significant. Founders are more likely to want to tackle smaller problems with a more secure business model. Investors are much less likely to back high-risk/high-reward speculative business propositions. Government will insist that we need to go slow and steady and prioritise goals like inclusivity and safety over performance. The public will be sceptical of any large AI company, especially if they're pushing regulatory boundaries, and demand government intervention.

captainbland 2y ago

It's not an AI specific thing. The UK's investment in harder science/tech seems to be seriously anemic. Every job posting I see seems to be some variation on the theme of pumping some representation of money around or retail/ecomm/HR management.

HPsquared 2y ago
That activity is a major "export" of ours, though.

f1shy 2y ago

In general, in all related to CS and software the UK is ages ahead of the mainland Europe. Also in AI. But still of course way behind US.

belter 2y ago
> In general, in all related to CS and software the UK is ages ahead of the mainland Europe You are you going to have to support this statement a little bit better :-)
- Cumpiler69 2y ago
  How about that the Danish pharma giant Novo Nordisk, makers of Ozempic, is opening their AI/ML lab in London next to DeepMind and other tech giants, instead of in its back yard? The only one close to UK in Europe is probably Switzerland and France but they too are mostly focused on research in universities rather than pushing out commercial products the way the US is exceeding at. Everyone else is not even in the game.
  - f1shy 2y ago
    Exactly nr 2 is Switzerland with ETH. Both together with France at a VERY academic level. Next maybe far far away Italy and Germany in very different fields, but at levels comparable (if not worse) with south America, like Chile Argentina Brasil and Uruguay
- f1shy 2y ago
  Well, you can try to do a job search in those countries, and look at titles and the job descriptions. Also looknat the curriculums of universities in those countries, and don’t be fooled by the official sites. Look in forums how good they are in AI topics.
  - munksbeer 2y ago
    I did the interviews for grad recruitment in tech at a big investment bank in London. The best maths and computer science graduates where frequently from the Eastern European countries.

yuumei 2y ago

The government wants to introduce a law to make it illegal to possess AI tools that are capable of CSAM output. As we know this is impossible, any company starting in the UK with AI will likely fail compared to other countries if this law passes. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8d90qe4nylo https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8d90qe4nylo

pinoy420 2y ago
I scariest part of this which I do not see people worried about, is the one sentence about requiring suspects to open their phones at the border for inspection.
- HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
  Opening phones at borders is already common practice everywhere, including the US. Unless you're a citizen countries don't have to let you in.

krageon 2y ago

They did brexit and started mattering even less than they already did: Not at all.