Britain unlikely to surpass US in AI race, former Google scientist says

By Serdar Dincel

ISTANBUL (AA) — Britain should recognise that the global race in artificial intelligence is dominated by the US and China and consider focusing on different areas of development, according to pioneering AI computer scientist Llion Jones.

"I think a country like Wales, or even Britain in general, is not going to beat the hyper-scalers, right? They’re not going to beat America and China in scaling up these AIs," said Jones, who was part of the Google team that enabled AI systems to respond in a human-like way, the BBC reported on Monday.

Jones said the UK can “embrace the idea” of doing “something different,” calling on policymakers to be “brave” in shaping the country’s technological strategy. He also argued that the “sycophantic” behaviour of current AI chatbots must be addressed, saying systems should be able to disagree with users and correct them when necessary.

He suggested that Wales could pursue what he is working on — creating an environment “where companies and the academic institutions feel like they have the resources, and the freedom, to start doing much more differentiated research.”

"It's a bit of a longer bet, but if it pays off then you're back in the race, right?," he added.