Under-Secretary of State says Bletchley Park was where ‘AI discussion began’.
The UK’s Minister for Artificial Intelligence Feryal Clark has praised Bletchley Park for the part it has played in the rapid development of AI in the UK.
The Minister was in Bletchley today to officially open a new exhibition called ‘The Age of AI’ at the famous codebreakers site. And she paid tribute to the former top-secret wartime centre, describing it as ‘the place where the debate about AI started’.
One of the birthplaces of modern computing, Bletchley Park was made famous by the pioneering work of the likes of Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman. The Second World War codebreakers were among the first people in the world to use codes and complex data to train machines – a process which is the lifeblood of modern-day AI development.
Talking exclusively to MKFM, Minister Clark told of her delight at visiting the new Government-funded exhibition, which she did before boarding a train to London and then on to Paris for next week’s AI Action Summit.
“I’m super excited to see the exhibition,” she said. “It’s my first time to Bletchley. It’s a huge day and very exciting.
“The Government has supported this project and it’s incredible for us as a nation to be celebrating Bletchley Park, the birthplace of modern computing. It’s important that we honour the legacy of the likes of Alan Turing, so it’s significant that we are here looking at modern AI as well.”
Bletchley Park’s status as one of the foundations of AI was highlighted two years ago when it was chosen for the world’s first summit dedicated to AI safety, hosted by the UK.
“The first AI safety summit was here and I’m off to Paris to talk at an event before the official summit starts on Monday,” said the Minister. “It’s absolutely right that I start my journey here at Bletchley Park where the whole discussion and debate around AI opportunities began. It’s incredible that the whole discussion started here.”
The Government is taking the Age of AI seriously – it recently launched its AI Opportunities Action Plan when Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced how they will be utilising the power of AI to kickstart ‘an era of economic growth’.
“We want to go out there (to Paris) with the British businesses and talk about the opportunities that we have for people to invest and support the growth of AI across our economy and to showcase the amazing businesses and innovation that’s happening in the UK with our ambitions and aspirations around it,” said Feryal Clark.
“There isn’t a part of our economy or society that isn’t going to be touched by AI, whether it’s in health, where we recently announced a cancer breast scanning programme, to products that are helping teachers plan their lessons and helping them with marking. That means more time with students and less time with admin work.
“It’s leading to faster diagnoses for diseases like cancer, sparking new drug and treatment breakthroughs for people across the country, and even helping us in the fight against climate change.”
The Minister said she had recently visited a project in Sutton where AI is being used to support elderly people to stay in their homes independently.
“It looks at the patterns in their day, such as how often they have their tea, or if they are not opening their fridge door enough,” she said. “Family members can monitor this information and see that they have not eaten at the usual time. Or if they have woken up too many times in the night or if they fall over.”
She said the new Bletchley Park exhibition will help to reduce some of the fears people might have in this fast-growing area of high technology, acknowledging that there could be some concern over it.
“The exhibition will help to educate and allay fears,” she said. “It will help in mapping that journey, how we got here, what it was used for. It will help to paint the picture that we were the home of modern computing – we were doing really innovative stuff like breaking the Enigma code back in 1945.
“It will help the journey to education, information and transparency. I think that’s really important.”
In terms of investment and innovation, the UK is considered the third most important nation for AI, after the US and China, and the Government wants to ensure Britain remains at the forefront of the technology.
“It is absolutely fantastic that Milton Keynes is central to the AI story,” said Minister Clark. “This is where the debate started, and the world will forever remember that it was here when we first began looking at the power of the modern AI innovations. It has now become even bigger, and we are very much involved in it.”
