According to new research, artificial intelligence in England could reportedly worsen regional inequalities in the nation as AI investments prove to be geographically concentrated in the "golden triangle" of London, Cambridge, and Oxford.
Ministers have pledged to level the playing field across the nation by reducing the difference between the highest and lowest-performing regions; however, the Institute for the Future of Work believes that the quick adoption of automation and generative AI may harm this goal.
According to the new research's findings, there are significant geographical differences in venture capital investments, R&D spending, and the development of copyrighted technologies related to technological transformation, which is centered in a small number of areas.
Consequently, the UK is confronted with serious issues due to low investment and productivity development levels, as has been extensively documented.
(Photo: OLIVIER MORIN/AFP via Getty Images) This illustration photograph, taken in Helsinki on June 12, 2023, shows an AI (Artificial Intelligence) logo blended with four fake Twitter accounts bearing profile pictures apparently generated by AI software.
While there are, on average, significant high-tech investments to refute this assertion, such investments are so concentrated that the national average is not representative of the vast majority of the population.
The study demonstrates how skewed technological investments in the country are through what it dubs the Technological Transformation Index.
By scoring each location based on investments, technology creation, and adoption, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Inner London East, and Inner London West had the highest scores in 2020.
These areas performed exceptionally well across the board in the index's subdimensions, but especially in R&D, innovation activity, and venture capital flows.
Conversely, areas such as Cornwall and Lincolnshire scored quite poorly, receiving little venture capital support for R&D and technology.
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UK's Investment Concentration
The paper also claims that investments in venture capital to tech companies and R&D expenditures made by enterprises and other organizations (government, non-profits, and the higher education sector) are largely concentrated in the same areas.
It is then concluded that it is highly likely that some of these variations are caused by variations in the specific industrial structure, although the concentration is so great in some areas that this is unlikely to be the entire story.
According to Bertha Rohenkohl, the primary author, news headlines stating that the UK has the greatest levels of high-tech investment in Europe may be referring to the national average, but they may be citing the UK as the leader by two, three, or four spots.
UK's Technological Investments
As the new report proves to show the risks UK's investments hold, the UK government declared in February that it would be investing over £100 million, or about $125 million, in total to strengthen artificial intelligence research and regulation to control the advantages and risks of AI.
Nine new AI research sites around the UK are the centerpiece of the plans—hubs that hopefully will be dispersed outside of the nation's "golden triangle."
The Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology has released an official press statement stating that the construction of nine new research hubs around the UK and a partnership on ethical AI with the US will cost about £90 million. The hubs will help British AI experts apply the technology to disciplines like chemistry, mathematics, and medicine.
Furthermore, 21 projects totaling £19 million will receive funding to develop innovative, trustworthy, and moral AI and machine learning solutions. Productivity will rise as a result, speeding up the adoption of these technologies.
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(Photo: Tech Times)
