Barnsley rebranded UK’s first ‘tech city’ as US giants be a part of AI push

[ad_1] In 2002 Barnsley toyed with a redesign as a Tuscan hill village because it sought out a brighter post-industrial future. In 2021 it adopted the airily obscure slogan “the place of potentialities”. Now it's attempting a distinct picture: Britain’s first “tech city”.

The expertise secretary, Liz Kendall, has anointed the South Yorkshire neighborhood as a trailblazer for “how AI can enhance on a regular basis life” within the UK.

Within the newest transfer in Labour’s drive to inject AI into Britain’s bloodstream, the federal government has introduced three US tech corporations – Microsoft, Google, Cisco and Adobe – have agreed to assist because the council pushes to use AI to native faculties, hospitals, GPs and companies in Barnsley, an space of South Yorkshire which has struggled with unemployment and deprivation for the reason that coal pits closed.

The city and its 250,000 folks have been chosen as a result of they've already adopted AI sooner than many locations, stated Sir Stephen Houghton, the Labour chief of Barnsley metropolitan borough council. His authority has been utilizing AI assistants for the final couple of years in grownup social care and youngsters’s providers, and its bin lorries have been enabled with tech to scan roads for potholes. The parcel firm Evri, which has considered one of its largest distribution hubs within the city, has been trialling robotic canines for deliveries.

Barnsley city corridor. {Photograph}: Richard Saker/The Guardian However native opposition leaders have warned rebranding Barnsley as a tech city “might sound a little bit of a leap” and highlighted native nervousness about whether or not AI is a pressure for good.

The “tech city” standing means residents will get free AI and digital coaching, companies might be supported to undertake AI, the hospital will take a look at AI instruments for check-ins, triage and outpatient care and AI might be examined in faculties and at Barnsley Faculty, all in an effort to enhance pupils’ outcomes and lecturers’ workloads.

“The financial foundation of Barnsley was destroyed 30 years in the past,” Houghton stated. “That is the largest alternative we now have had since then. The way forward for the economic system goes to be in expertise and for Barnsley to be on the centre of that's an unbelievable alternative.”

However one space of uncertainty is the position of the tech corporations. Houghton stated: “The council received’t be paying them. Whether or not the federal government is, we now have to attend and see.”

Microsoft already has a relationship with Barnsley Faculty and, together with Google and Cisco, is known to be engaged on a professional bono foundation.

Barnsley’s ‘tech city’ standing means residents might be eligible without cost AI coaching. {Photograph}: Richard Saker/The Observer “If we're going to get AI to work for Britain, we'd like Britons and British public providers that may work with AI,” Kendall stated. “If we are able to present that AI helps younger folks study, helps native companies to be extra productive, and improves public providers, then we are able to present what’s potential for the entire nation. What we study right here will form how we roll out AI throughout the UK.”

Ministers have confronted criticism over their dealing with of massive expertise corporations. Final week the federal government launched a nationwide AI coaching programme to upskill 10 million residents, however most of the on-line programs turned out to be bespoke coaching for patrons of specific corporations reminiscent of Google, others price as a lot as £525 to finish and a few merely promoted the deserves of specific firm’s approaches to AI reminiscent of one explaining Microsoft’s “accountable AI method”.

A spokesperson for the Division for Science, Innovation and Expertise stated a whole lot of programs on the AI Expertise Hub are free and the place fee is required it's clearly marketed. “All programs are reviewed towards a standard set of standards to make sure they're related, prime quality, and delivered by eligible organisations,” they stated.

Ministers have additionally been challenged for holding conferences with tech bosses on the charge of greater than as soon as every working day. The federal government insists engagement is important to create progress and remodel providers.

“It’s not about giving tech corporations entry to knowledge they shouldn’t be having,” Houghton stated. “It’s a safe programme and we're not leaving ourselves open. However these things will not be going away. We have now to verify we're sensible sufficient to guard folks whereas benefiting from the constructive stuff it brings.”

Hannah Kitching, the chief of the council’s Liberal Democrat opposition, stated funding within the city was welcome however “there may be plenty of nervousness amongst folks about using AI and whether or not it's a pressure for good. We all know it could possibly be however there are darker sides as effectively.”

“[Barnsley] remains to be actually linked to its mining previous,” she stated. “Youthful folks see the roles and alternatives across the tech city concept however older generations maybe don’t. There's a job to be carried out to get folks onboard.”

Residents “need the council to get the fundamentals proper”, she stated. Roads had been “completely crumbling” and in dangerous climate bins didn't get collected, she added.