(article / Zhang Jiawei) with the sensational effect of the "man-machine war" of go, Deep thinking, a British company that has been acquired by Alphabet Inc-CL C, has given ordinary people a preliminary understanding of the complex technological advantages of artificial intelligence through Alpha go. However, to really allow artificial intelligence to carry out the industrialization process maturely, we still need to dig out more application scenarios related to people's livelihood. In the UK, companies from the government level to "deep thinking" are accelerating this development.

Increase support at the national level

In the past few years, due to the long-term accumulation of academic research and talent advantages, sound technology patent protection and transfer market mechanism, the UK has been in the forefront of the world in the field of artificial intelligence.

According to a report released by MMC Venture Capital in partnership with the investment arm of Barclays Bank, there are nearly 500 artificial intelligence technology start-ups in the UK, accounting for 1/3 of all European companies, more than any other country in Europe. And many of these artificial intelligence companies have mastered the real core technology, such as "deep thinking", "fast keys" and other companies have been heavily acquired by multinational giants, and related technologies have also been used in many fields.

In the UK's previously released industrial development strategy, artificial intelligence and the data economy are clearly listed as one of the areas that will bring major changes to the world in the future. A review of artificial intelligence development policy commissioned by the British government has previously pointed out that artificial intelligence is expected to add more than $800 billion to the British economy by 2035.

At present, based on its own advantages, the UK is further increasing its support for artificial intelligence, especially in consolidating its basic R & D capabilities and talent reserves.

As early as 2015, the British government promoted the establishment of the Allen Turing Institute by top universities such as Cambridge University, Oxford University and the University of Edinburgh. With the rise of artificial intelligence, the national data science research institution has also invested more resources in artificial intelligence research projects and attracted more top overseas talents to the UK to do research in the field.

In addition, the British government announced in February that it would increase the number of master's degrees in artificial intelligence in colleges and universities and set up 16 special academic centers to train doctoral talents in artificial intelligence.

British Business Secretary Greg Clark said: "from more efficient disease diagnosis and treatment to smart homes, artificial intelligence has great potential to increase productivity and improve a variety of industries." The new initiative we have announced is to implement the UK's industrial strategy and invest resources in skills and talent development to create more high-tech jobs, growth and productivity in the UK. "

Try first in the field of medical treatment

One of the current priorities in the development of artificial intelligence in the UK is to explore how to integrate this technology with the medical field. One of the goals set by the British government is to use technologies such as artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency of prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases, and to become a global leader in this field in the near future. For the UK, a country with high labor costs and heavy work in the health care system, the need for this application scenario is very obvious and will help to solve more livelihood problems.

Last year, the British government announced that it would allocate 50 million pounds to set up five centres across the country to further develop the application of artificial intelligence in medical segmentation, in order to improve the efficiency of early diagnosis and patient care of a variety of diseases such as cancer. The five centres, which will be set up in Leeds, Oxford, Coventry, Glasgow and London, will mainly rely on local well-known universities and medical institutions to try to develop different artificial intelligence tools. According to the plan, these centers will be put into operation in 2019.

A spokesman for the UK Research and Innovation Institute said in an interview earlier: "New technology can help improve early diagnosis of diseases, including cancer." In hospitals, the use of these new technologies can liberate doctors and devote more energy to treatment decisions. "

Deep thinking has worked with hospitals and research institutions in the UK to develop an artificial intelligence system that can quickly identify more than 50 eye diseases and give referrals. Based on a large number of retina-related scan images of anonymous ophthalmopathy patients, the researchers allowed a deep learning algorithm framework to learn to identify the characteristics of eye diseases and to give referrals to patients with severe conditions.

The team asked ophthalmologists to evaluate the same patient data and give referrals to the system, and found that the accuracy of the artificial intelligence system was more than 94%, comparable to that of top ophthalmologists. The project is still evolving, and eventually the team hopes to allow artificial intelligence systems to predict people's symptoms before the onset of eye diseases, so that doctors can carry out preventive treatment in a timely manner.

Professor Reza Razawi, of King's College London, said in a previous interview: "artificial intelligence can be applied to almost every aspect of health care, from how hospitals organize and manage patient mobility. To assist in the early diagnosis of potential health problems and tailor treatment plans for patients."

British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline PLC has also partnered with Exscientia, a start-up in artificial intelligence technology, to use its artificial intelligence platform to improve the efficiency of new drug research and development. The drug research and development process is time-consuming and costly, and the use of artificial intelligence technology helps to efficiently complete a large number of tedious and repetitive screening work, which is expected to speed up new drug research and development and reduce costs.

Data security faces challenges

The development of artificial intelligence involves a large amount of data, and the use of data is often easy to cause privacy concerns, especially in the medical field. In the process of carrying out related projects with hospitals, Deep thinking has been criticized for the improper use of data and has been under a lot of pressure from public opinion. Especially when the protection of personal data in many countries is becoming more and more stringent, in order to develop artificial intelligence in the future, the government and the industry still need to find a better balance in this area.

The UK government is also trying to establish a "data trust mechanism" through the cooperation of multiple departments to ensure that the use of data is secure and ethical, and to make the use and exchange of data more transparent between agencies.

Professor Lazawi said: "this requires us to explain to the public with a more open mind what benefits research and progress in relevant areas can bring to them, and it is also necessary to devote more resources to ensure that activities in this area are carried out in an orderly manner. for example, patients who do not want their own data to be used should be easily opted out of the project."