As a former professor in artificial intelligence, one of my favorite – and surely one of the oldest – technological myths is found in the masterpiece, the Iliad. In Homer's poem narrating the Trojan War, the God of metalworking, Hephaestus, engineers one of the first robots known to history, a handmaiden designed to assist him in his forge. Not happy with limiting himself to manufacturing, Hephaestus steps it up by designing Talos, an automated bronze giant whose purpose was to protect ancient Crete from pirates and invaders. While thousands of years have passed since Hephaestus' mythical robots came to life, today's intelligent machines – strong with skillful AI – are making headway in our own workplaces. Take the factories and warehouses adversely affected by the pandemic as an example. With fewer and fewer workers willing and able to assist our manufacturers and fulfilment centers, many are embracing AI and machine learning to automate tasks such as quality control which are traditionally reliant on scores of human workers.

This piece explores myths about Artificial Intelligence, such as "I need to go to a university and hire an AI PhD" and "I need to collect millions of images to even know if using AI is possible." As a former professor in artificial intelligence, one of my favorite–and surely one of the oldest–technological myths is found in the masterpiece, the Iliad. In Homer's poem narrating the Trojan War, the God of metalworking, Hephaestus, engineers one of the first robots known to history, a handmaiden designed to assist him in his forge. Not happy with limiting himself to manufacturing, Hephaestus steps it up by designing Talos, an automated bronze giant whose purpose was to protect ancient Crete from pirates and invaders. While thousands of years have passed since Hephaestus' mythical robots came to life, today's intelligent machines–strong of skillful AI–are making headway in our own workplaces.

October 4, 2021: This post is a bit of a rush-up recap of the last month or so since this period of my life began. Finding out about the fellowship was a late-August surprise, after an unassuming email notification. I still remember Orthogonal Research and Education Lab PI, Dr Bradly Alicea for his letter of recommendation months ago. August was also my first month after moving to Boston, following a whirlwind of a summer abroad on a bit of travel, new jobs, research, and maybe "a week of vacation in London surrounding a business trip to Oxford." It was also exciting to be lead organizer and co-host for the Discussion Group at CogSci 2021 "Trajectories in Cognitive Science", as well as participate in a slew of other connference activity at OREL. Seeing Boston at the end of summer, and finding I know many colleagues, academic, general nerds, and friends here already, was a treat.

In order to establish the UK as an artificial intelligence (AI) "research hotspot," the government is using money from its new AI Sector Deal to fund 1,000 AI PhDs and 8,000 specialist computer science teachers by 2025. Including contributions from more than 50 tech companies and other organizations, the AI Sector Deal will be worth some £1 billion ($1.4 billion), and includes £300 million of new private sector investment, according to a Thursday press release. The investment is primarily focused on AI research. "By boosting AI skills and data driven technologies we will make sure that we continue to build a Britain that is shaping the future," Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Matt Hancock said in the press release. SEE: IT leader's guide to the future of artificial intelligence (Tech Pro Research) Part of the goal is to make sure every secondary school has a qualified computer science teacher to educate students with the tech skills they'll need in the future.

The British government and the private sector have both contributed to a £1 billion deal that seeks to place the UK at the head of the artificial intelligence industry. The deal includes almost £300 million from more than 50 technology companies, and will be coupled with 1,000 new government funded AI PhDs to help drive the UK's research expertise. It comes after the European Commission last week called for a 20 billion euro (£17bn) investment in artificial intelligence across the European Union in order to catch up with Chinese and US research. It also comes after a recent report by the House of Lords, which proposed a list of recommendations for the UK to become a global leader in AI innovation. That report concluded that the UK is uniquely positioned to shape the development of artificial intelligence, but a code of ethics is needed so it benefits mankind.