The UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has announced the launch of the AI for Collective Intelligence (AI4CI) Hub, one of nine new research hubs across the UK aimed at revolutionising artificial intelligence.
With funding of £12 million, the AI4CI Hub is a collaboration involving the Universities of Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Glasgow, Ulster, and University College London (UCL). This multi-disciplinary partnership will focus on leveraging intelligence that is distributed across populations of people and devices in order to improve both individual and collective decision making.
The Hub’s research spans five key application domains: healthcare, pandemic resilience, cities, finance, and the environment. It will also address cross-cutting themes such as human-centered design and infrastructure and governance to ensure new AI systems are trustworthy, safe, and equitable.
Professor Seth Bullock, Director of the AI4CI Hub, emphasized the Hub’s commitment to inclusive innovation:
Our Hub’s main aim is to put useful AI in the hands of regular people, especially those who might otherwise not benefit from it. Modern AI is driven by huge amounts of data collected from us and Collective Intelligence research is about enabling us to benefit directly from the AI systems that data fuels. We can’t wait to get started.
This transformative work, conducted across the UK, positions the Hub as a key player in advancing the nation’s leadership in AI research, development, and ethical application.
Read more about the UKRI AI programme: £100m boost in AI research will propel transformative innovations (UKRI)