Trailing the US and second-placed China, it holds a slight lead over Canada and South Korea, according to the Global AI Index published in December 2020 by Tortoise Media. Philp continues: "For businesses, we want to ensure that there are clear rules, applied ethical principles and a pro-innovation regulatory environment that can create tech powerhouses across the country." A survey published by Experian in September indicates that more than two-thirds (68%) of UK students wrongly believe that they would need to earn a STEM qualification to stand a chance of landing a data-related job. Dr Mahlet Zimeta, head of public policy at the Open Data Institute, thinks that the widely held view that "the UK needs to produce more people who can code" is unhelpful at best. For employers, this will include ensuring that their staff "have access to suitable training and development opportunities", he adds, pointing out that the government's online list of so-called skills bootcamps is an excellent place to start.Tortoise Media's Global AI Index ranks the UK fourth in the world on its supply of talent and third for the quality of its research.

The U.K. government has announced a national AI strategy -- its first dedicated package aimed at boosting the country's capabilities in and around machine learning technologies over the longer term. It says it hopes the strategy will lead to an increase in the number and types of AIs being developed and commercialized in the U.K. over the next 10 years. The plan to prioritize and "level up" development and applications of artificial intelligence follows earlier industrial and digital strategies -- which talked up the promise of AI. But Boris Johnson's government is now inching onward, announcing a 10-year plan to invest in making Britain "a global AI superpower", as the government's PR puts it -- by targeting support at areas like upskilling and reskilling in the hopes of reaping AI-driven economic rewards down the line. Whether there's much of policy substance here, as yet, looks debatable.