UK government launches AI Assurance Stakeholder Consortium

The UK government has launched an AI Assurance Stakeholder Consortium, together with BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, to spearhead safe artificial intelligence (AI) adoption across the country.

The consortium, which brings together leading figures from the UK’s existing AI assurance ecosystem, aims to measure and evaluate the trustworthiness of AI systems.

This includes creating a skills and competencies framework, a voluntary code of ethics for professionals, mapping information access requirements for AI assurance providers, and collaborating across sectors to raise the visibility and quality of AI assurance.

According to government figures, the AI market has the potential to reach £18.8bn gross value added (GVA) to the UK economy by 2035.

AI minister Kanishka Narayan said that if the government wants people to harness the benefits of AI, they need to trust it.

“AI assurance is going to be a massive part of our efforts to put AI to work boosting businesses, improving public services and creating opportunities for people,” he said.

“The UK already has all the ingredients needed to build a world-class AI assurance sector – this new consortium will spearhead those efforts. Together, we can make the UK the most trusted place in the world to develop, deploy and assure AI.”

The consortium aims to bring together voices from across the AI assurance ecosystem to support the creation of a recognised AI assurance profession, which it sees as critical to safely adopt and scale the use of AI in the UK.

While the consortium has been set up by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), it will be led by BCS and chaired by technologist Emma McGuigan.

“AI assurance is no longer a niche issue, but is becoming essential infrastructure for an economy that wants to adopt AI confidently, responsibly and at scale. The consortium will focus on practical steps that help organisations understand what good AI assurance looks like, from professional ethics and skills, to the information needed to assess AI systems properly,” said McGuigan.  

“Our ambition is to support a trusted, credible and globally respected AI assurance profession that helps unlock innovation while protecting people, organisations and society,” she added.

The government has also launched a £200m fund with the aim of upskilling businesses and helping them to adopt and scale AI. The funding, which was announced at the AI Adoption Summit yesterday (8 June), will be used for a series of initiatives, including boosting AI adoption and launching AI adoption growth labs for businesses and regulators.

In addition, a sovereign compute strategy will support homegrown UK businesses developing AI products. It also announced a £1.1bn AI hardware plan, which aims to improve the country’s deployment and scaling of AI technologies.

In April, the government also launched a £500m sovereign AI fund to turn British AI research into companies that can stoke economic growth. The fund aims to invest directly in early and growth-stage AI companies with a typical equity investment between £1m and £10m.