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AI United Kingdom Technology

Brexit To Add to Europe's Woes in AI Race, Sweden's Borg Says (bloomberg.com) 63

The loss of the U.K.'s financial power and expertise as a result of Brexit is likely to exacerbate the European Union's lag in the global technological arms race, according to Anders Borg, a former Swedish finance minister and senior adviser at artificial intelligence company Ipsoft. From a report: "Brexit entails several layers of problems," Borg said in an interview in Stockholm. "Technological development is being driven by the financial sector and, to a large extent, Europe's financial sector is London. So it's not the British financial system that is now being put on hold, it's Europe's." Britain is home to a third of artificial-intelligence startups in Europe, according to a report by MMC Ventures in association with Barclays, which dubs the country "the powerhouse" of European AI. Europe is already slipping behind China and the U.S., which invest much more in AI systems, Borg said. Another key issue involves 5G, which provides the additional bandwidth needed to carry the vast amounts of data necessary for AI development. The networks will form the "backbone" of the new digital economy, Borg said.
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Brexit To Add to Europe's Woes in AI Race, Sweden's Borg Says

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  • If ever there was an authority on AI...

    Brexit To Add to Europe's Woes in AI Race, Sweden's Borg Says

    ... I guess that would indeed be the Borg, regardless where they're living.

  • by ffkom ( 3519199 ) on Friday May 10, 2019 @04:35PM (#58571344)
    ... because with the Brexit actually happening, all hopes on natural intelligence are lost.
  • by freax ( 80371 ) on Friday May 10, 2019 @04:44PM (#58571374) Homepage

    "In 2018 Borg joined IPsoft as Senior Advisor, with main role to promote the company's AI platform Amelia."*

    Mister Borg is trying to secure EU or other government funding for Amelia.

    *) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

  • by sd4f ( 1891894 ) on Friday May 10, 2019 @04:48PM (#58571388)
    I have no clue if this Anders Borg is an authority on anything, but since he's a former politician, I'm thinking he's just talking crap. Point is, startups predominantly fail, and the ones that 'make it' are ones that are bought out by one of the big 5. All Anders Borg seems to be capable of doing is trotting out all the necessary jargon, and stringing it along in a sentence.
    • by Stolpskott ( 2422670 ) on Friday May 10, 2019 @05:02PM (#58571448)

      He certainly is a former politician, but as an economics guy whose policies were credited with a proactive approach to dealing with unemployment and having a positive record of job creation, he is generally considered to be one of the more competent voices on economic policy in the Nordics, although his trousers do have a reputation for falling down when women are in the room.
      He is also seen as something of a technocrat, and is apparently a voracious reader with an open mind and curious nature, so while he certainly won't be getting a job developing AI systems he is in a good position to see how the economic impact of Brexit would affect, for example, employers and R&D efforts in the tech sector.
      But, as a politician, I am sure he is capable of coming up with a scenario where the political climate creates a danger, and spin things so that only his current employer can you you out of it, if only they had more funds...

      • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

        Well than as an economics guy, why can he not understand the difference between the fantasy of the UK as an economic power house with it's money and the reality of the UK as a temporary power house based upon other countries money. A lot of the UK economic power house is based upon being a global money launderer for the tax havens that it controls and that is coming to an end. So other people's money soon to leave, the end of UK controlled tax haven money laundering and well the other boot about to drop, se

  • Of course the Borg don't want anyone to leave, they only know assimilating.
  • by Anonymous Coward

    The EU has existed for less than 30 years. When the EU didn't exist, London was one of the major business/financial capitols of Europe. Why would anything change now.

    Someone is trying to create problems, or the appearance of problems, because Britain had the nerve to break away from the bureaucratic control of the EU.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The EEC is much older than 30 years, and indeed it wasn't until the 80s when London really became the financial capital of Europe.

      For years other EU countries have been concerned about it, due to the UK's, ah, reluctance over the project. But they never expected the UK to be stupid enough to try to leave the EU.

      Now it's happening they obviously want that business moved to their countries and have already divided some of it up between them, but that process has not been as rapid as it could have been due to

      • Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)

        by Chas ( 5144 )

        Stupid?

        To NOT give up their self-determination to an unelected body of oligarchs whose solution to a vote that didn't go their way is to continue calling votes until it DOES go their way? The function of the only elected bodies in the organization are to rubber-stamp anything emerging from the unelected mandarin bodies.

        For wanting to decouple themselves from something that was only supposed to be a trading bloc, and is now pushing to become a supranational government with it's own military?

        For objecting to

        • by Anonymous Coward

          Stupid, Chas. Used in a sentence, "Chas, you retarded inbred libertarian whiny bitch with no actual concept of the UK, governance, law, or best practices, you are stupid to give your breathless cheerleader hyperbolic bollocks here."

        • What is the EU department that is flooding us with refugees? Is Brussels sending troops to Africa and forcing people into dangerous boats in the Mediterranean?

          • by Chas ( 5144 )

            https://www.nytimes.com/2017/0... [nytimes.com]

            These people aren't refugees.

            People with the means to pay trafficking rings are coming over in promise of a better standard of living. Not because they're oppressed or fleeing political tyranny.
            The actual poor in these countries simply can't afford to make the trip and have no way to actually get there.

            These traffickers partner with the NGOs to bring huge quantities of people over.

            And the EU is just blanketing these people under the misnomer of "refugee" and trying to use t

            • Which courts and which court cases? You do know that anyone has the right to claim asylum in any country that has signed the 1951 UN Refugee Convention but the country does not have to grant them asylum and usually doesn't. I'm surprised you didn't know that already. I'm also not sure why you think someone having the money to escape doesn't mean they're not a refugee. I would suggest you read the Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights (neither of which are anything to do with the

              • by Chas ( 5144 )

                "Which court cases"

                Evidently you didn't click the link...

                Thanks for playing.

        • Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)

          by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday May 10, 2019 @07:55PM (#58572136)
          Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • by Chas ( 5144 )

            Me stupid?

            The political class in the UK is still directly answerable to THE PEOPLE.
            They still fuck things up. But, in the end, they have to answer for it.

            That's not so with the EU. So you can be 100%, 1000% 1 billion and twelve percent right about something. But if they don't want it, you're wrong.
            And you have ZERO recourse.

            Oh no! Not the "If we're not in the EU, we're fucked!" line!
            NOW I'm properly terrified!
            QUAKIN' IN ME BOOTS!

            The UK will STILL have influence. It's still a world power. Myriad treati

        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Unelected? In a couple of weeks are are having European elections.

          Overall the EU is a more democratic institution than the UK government.

      • The EEC is much older than 30 years, and indeed it wasn't until the 80s when London really became the financial capital of Europe.

        ROFLMAO. London was the financial capital OF THE ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD for over 200 years before the EEC existed. It is only in the last half of the 20th century when Wall Street caught up that it temporarily lost that position as it trades first place with Wall Street.

  • by K. S. Kyosuke ( 729550 ) on Friday May 10, 2019 @04:58PM (#58571432)
    If your AI depends on a 5G connection, maybe it's time for you to finally invest in fiber? As to whether financial institutions will remain in London, that's an interesting question.
    • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      AI is totally dependent upon one thing and one thing only, human intelligence. The leader will not be a country, so much as the corporation that sets up their AI company is the place where it is cheapest to hire recruits from all over the world. Don't think cheap, cheap, think more, well this is where they will want to live and bring their family and we will make it easy to emigrate and gain citizenship and live healthy and safe lives for them and their family. So recruiting them with quality of life rather

  • Sweden already has their own Borg?!? Man, I always knew they were so much more advanced than us.

  • Not to worry (Score:4, Interesting)

    by WillAffleckUW ( 858324 ) on Friday May 10, 2019 @05:23PM (#58571536) Homepage Journal

    Scotland will be back in the EU soon.

  • have had decades to try and understand computers.
    The nations of the EU saw how people liked their US OS and US hardware in the 1980's.
    Years later "AI" is that computer thing and the EU missed that too.
    Its not a UK policy that's external to EU nations.
    Want to do computers in the EU? Have the EU nation wide skills to work with new computers.
    The US always did as they look after their very, very best students every decade.
    What to win at computers in the EU? Start to look after your very best students
  • by Anonymous Coward

    AI is a sort of fad. We have just renamed things that already existed for decades which previously had names like neural lets, deep learning, fuzzy logic etc into AI - which was previously mostly reserve for "hard" AI (which is a completely different thing - we have no idea how to get there even), and they have been improving all the time, along with the hardware. Sure, these types of algorithms have multiple applications, but there's no international "race" as the post puts it.

  • "Britain is home to a third of artificial-intelligence startups in Europe"

    Unfortunately, it's obviously also the start of the end of natural intelligence in Europe.

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