British government announces £13 million in funding for healthcare before AI Safety Summit

The British government has announced the appointments of Matt Clifford and Jonathan Black as its experts to ensure Britain is well-equipped and ready to host the first-ever AI Safety Summit this forthcoming autumn, with finalised dates set to be confirmed soon.

It is set to be the first major event on a global scale in relation to the safe usage of artificial intelligence (AI). The summit was first declared by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in June and the meet is expected to gather together leading researchers and tech organisations as well as world leaders.

Clifford is the CEO of Entrepreneur First and Chair of the Advanced Research and Invention Agency, whilst Black is a Heywood Fellow at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford and previously the UK G7 and G20 Sherpa and Deputy National Security Adviser.

The pair will work together to encourage the very best AI organisations, experts and nations ahead of the summit and bring them on board. Clifford and Black bring the necessary experience and skill set to ensure that the AI Safety Summit results in resolutions for the reduction of AI risks worldwide.

At the summit, the potential hazards that come with more usage of AI in society will be brought up, including frontier systems and how that can be handled from a global perspective. The summit will provide a platform for nations to converse with one another on finding coordinated solutions to combat AI risks.

Britain has established itself as a key player in the global AI sector with it ranked as the third-best world leader, behind the United States and China, making it an appropriate host for the upcoming summit. The AI sector in Britain currently provides £3.7 billion to the country's economy with 50,000 people employed in the industry across the nation.

This year has already seen Britain move forward with major plans for future AI safety as an expert task force was put together to strategise on just that with an initial £100 million in investment awarded to help with the process. Also, £900 million has been pledged for the development of computing capacity, which will involve bringing forward an exascale supercomputer in Britain.

Technology Secretary, Michelle Donelan, spoke on appointing the two new experts to help prepare for the AI Safety Summit.

She said: "Matt and Jonathan's experience and expertise means that they are perfectly placed to lay the groundwork ahead of talks this year on safe and responsible AI. We're already a leading nation when it comes to artificial intelligence – and this summit will help cement our position as the home of safe innovation.

Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, mentioned the importance of the world needing a shared vision for handling AI risks. He pronounced: "Artificial intelligence will fundamentally alter every aspect of human life. As AI rapidly evolves, we need a global approach that seizes the opportunities that AI poses while grasping the challenges and minimising the risks."

The news of Clifford and Black's appointments in preparation for the AI Safety Summit comes as other major AI developments in Britain have also occurred, with the Technology Secretary revealing investment worth £13 million is to go towards evolving and revolutionising healthcare research.

The research will help deliver innovative AI tools for the healthcare sector to benefit from and there will be 22 university and NHS trust projects across Britain chosen to receive portions of the £13 million investment. AI will be able to give further insight within healthcare research from matters including tumour removals plus predictions of patients' future health issues based on current conditions.

Projects include one led by University College London's Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences, which will receive over £500,000 in investment, and will go towards finding advanced technological solutions for prominent brain tumours. The Secretary of State is due to pay a visit to the site to get a look at the early stages of the project and catch a glimpse of a potentially transformative healthcare invention.

Other projects include ones led by the University of Sheffield, University of Oxford, Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and University of Surrey, with each receiving above £450,000 for their respective projects.

The University of Sheffield plans on finding new and advanced solutions for better treatment of chronic nerve pain, with its seriousness demonstrated by 10 per cent of adults over the age of 30 suffering from it. The University of Oxford wants to further its research into an AI-driven framework for clinical risk prediction so that future health issues could come up based on a patient's current condition.

Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh will look to create a system for helping trainee surgeons see their own real-time movements when practising keyhole surgery. The University of Surrey will allow researchers and radiologists to converse with one another on creating an AI tool for better mammogram analysis.