Britain can crack AI, if we put our minds to it

Sherry Coutu spends much of her time above the Atlantic, shuttling between Cambridge and Silicon Valley in search of the brightest talent in the technology sector. When it comes to artificial intelligence -- one of the fields expected to make the biggest difference to the way we live our lives over the coming decades -- she believes that Britain has an edge. "There is a huge amount of evidence to show that we are No 1," said the Canadian-born tech guru, who has lived in Britain since 1993. But, she added, "we are still growing fewer companies than we should". Artificial intelligence (AI) is an overused term. Some big companies attempt to pass off basic systems that simply provide automated responses to consumers as an "AI solution".