Adam Afriyie – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Adam Afriyie on 2016-04-14.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he is taking to support research into and development of machine learning.
Joseph Johnson
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills supports the research and development of machine learning through the Research Councils, for example the current Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council portfolio contains nearly 150 research and training grants involving aspects of artificial intelligence.
The Science and Technology Facilities Council’s Hartree Centre uses high performance computing combined with big data analytics, cognitive computing and visualisation techniques to collaborate with industry and research partners. The latest government investment of £113 million at Hartree in a cognitive and data centric computing centre (announced in the 2014 Autumn Statement) has attracted inward investment from IBM and other hi-tech industry exceeding £200 million.
Research Councils also support existing machine learning applications, for example the Medical Research Council support programmes which involve the use of machine learning tools for image analysis and in analysing and predicting risk of Serious Adverse Events for hospital patients.
The Arts and Humanities Research Council also support aspects of research and development on machine learning relating to its importance within the rapidly emerging field of the digital humanities and issues relating to ethical, philosophical, legal and historical perspectives of machine learning and human-computer interactions.
