‘Data is the new oil’: Why Scotland should be excited, not scared, by artificial intelligence

We currently stand amid the Fourth Industrial Revolution, with artificial intelligence (AI) showing potential to catalyse the global economy at an exponentially greater scale than steam power. This impact is already being felt throughout society and the world.

In this context, the UK Government’s response to the AI Opportunities Action Plan emphasises this country’s capability to stand at the forefront of these technological developments. However, it also serves to highlight the gaps in the plan which, if unresolved, threaten to delay the UK’s goal to become a global AI superpower.

Many of the things we do today would be unimaginable 50 years ago, yet AI is in the process of changing the world all over again. Intelligent systems are everywhere – from natural language assistants that generate realistic human text to computer vision systems that can diagnose ailments from patterns imperceptible to humans in medical images.

Artificial intelligence will be even more profound than the invention of the steam engine for human development (Picture: Fabrice Coffrini) | AFP via Getty Images

Science fiction careers made real

Last year, a conversational agent was developed that gave legal advice for multiple countries with reference to appropriate documents. These things exist right now, meaning the creations of tomorrow are all the more likely to be wondrous and exciting.

In many respects, the action plan represents a very significant step towards that future. Improving the commercial and research environments for AI development will help attract talent to our shores and improve job opportunities. Better availability of public-sector datasets via a National Data Library, with appropriate ethical safeguards, will empower development of technologies to improve quality of life.

A commitment to AI education will ensure the next generation are equipped with the skills to use these technologies for careers previously relegated to science-fiction. We can do this in Scotland too, which should be a prime candidate for an AI growth zone. Energy capital Aberdeen, for example, has the knowledge, expertise and capacity to support large volumes of data resource powered by green-energy sources.

‘Explainable’ AI

As inspiring as this sounds though, many of the gaps in the action plan are revealed when we ask the simple question: how do we get there? As it continues to evolve over the next months and years, ‘explainable’ AI (XAI) must be considered as a key enabler of an AI-powered future.

While AI algorithms can perform many tasks, they typically lack human-understandable reasoning which makes it hard to trust the results. Society will struggle to adopt technologies if the outcomes cannot be clearly justified – consider a situation where a doctor is unable to tell a patient why they have been diagnosed with a life-altering condition. XAI technologies will therefore be key in ensuring that critical operations are transparent and auditable.

In a world where ‘data is the new oil’, we must also ensure that a person’s ownership of this valuable resource is protected. Just as we prevent prospective oil mining in an individual’s back garden, so too must we protect misuse of their data, and we can only achieve this if we provide transparency about how it is used.

This future should be driven by a populace well-educated in AI and well-informed about the use of data. With this, we will progress towards a talented, educated, and informed UK workforce. This future should be exciting, not terrifying, and Scotland could be at the heart of it.

Dr Kyle Martin, lecturer and researcher, AI & Reasoning Research Group, Robert Gordon University