UK and US enter special deal to develop Artificial Intelligence and thwart China – IAM Network

The UK ranks second only to America in the new technology, says Oxford Insight's AI Readiness Index, although China may have already pushed us into third. AI is already widely used in Britain for such processes as online banking and is providing the backbone for Covid research. In May Britain was the first country to contribute a supercomputer to the Covid-19 High Performance Computing Consortium.The group runs calculations in epidemiology, bioinformatics and molecular modelling to discover new treatments and a vaccine.However, the new US-UK partnership – which stemmed from a meeting between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and US president Donald Trump – was also prompted by fears that China may be on the track to become an AI superpower.In 2017 China's state council announced itsAI development plan which aims to connect and upgrade all industry within just five years, as part of a "Made in China 2025" push.Under the plan, AI will be used to control firms to balance supply and demand, while the technology will also be used to keep tabs on the population.Announcing the partnership, US chief technology officer Michael Kratsios said: "America and our allies must lead the world in shaping the development of …