Thales widens the debate on the future applications of artificial intelligence in the economy and everyday life
Artificial intelIigence is already part of our lives, from voice-powered virtual assistants in the home to predictive algorithms helping us search online. Yet we have barely seen the beginnings of the potential to be unleashed in industry, medicine and everyday life.
Our challenge is to think widely enough to exploit the technology where it can make the greatest positive changes, while reassuring the public that AI is safe.
AI in the UK
It is estimated* that UK GDP will be 10.3% higher in 2030 due to AI-driven productivity. Last year the UK Government launched its strategy for the AI sector, aspiring to make the UK a world leader and setting a number of challenges, including raising research and development (R&D) to 2.4% of GDP by 2027 and investing £1 billion on digital infrastructure.
Starting the conversation
To initiate a conversation on the benefits and risks of AI, and as part of a series of eight similar events around the world, Thales is hosting a round table discussion at the Royal Institution in London on Thursday January 24, 2019. Members of the media can question to a panel of experts, including:
- Victor Chavez, CEO of Thales UK
- Dr Alvin Wilby, VP of research, technology and innovation at Thales UK
- Gareth Williams, VP of cyber security at Thales UK
- Ben Pritchard, Research Group Lead, at RTI Engineering, Thales UK
- Tim Coley, product specialist at XPI Simulation, a subsidiary of Thales UK, working on ground-breaking research to test and certify Connected Autonomous
Vehicles in simulated environments.
- Kirsty Lloyd-Jukes, CEO of Latent Logic, building realistic AI-based human behaviour models to enable safe testing of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs).
- Professor Paul Jennings, lead for Intelligent Vehicles team at the Warwick Manufacturing Group at Warwick University, working closely with Thales and XPI.
Subjects under discussion include:
- How to curb public apprehension towards AVs
- How industry can take inspiration from the aviation sector to assure safety in an autonomous world
- How AI can be used here to generate real-world scenarios and near-misses to identify where the technology fails to reduce rates of accidents, essentially putting AVs through the ‘most rigorous driving test ever’
- Cyber security and the connected car
- The reality of autonomous passenger aircraft – what’s being done now and what the future holds
Thales and AI
Thales recognises the key role AI will play in future technologies by investing 20% of its annual revenues in R&D. Thales is project leading the launch of the European Commission's AI4EU project, the first European on-demand AI platform.
Research is also ongoing into the application of AI to combat cyberthreats to IT systems and to speeding up the analysis and sharing of large volumes of data from multiple sources on the battlefield.
Discover more about Thales UK’s work on artificial intelligence
Find out how Thales is working to boost public confidence in AVs. Download our white paper, Making Driving as Safe as Flying in an Autonomous world.
* PWC