Britain the AI powerhouse

The headquarters of Google Deepmind, the developer of the artificial intelligence AlphaGo, is located in downtown London. From the outside, the six-storied building has no signs at all. It was late last year that an IT media outlet found out the address of the headquarters. Built on a very expensive land, the second floor of the building serves as both a resting place and a playground for the employees. The beer party on every Friday night is a feast celebrating their "collective intelligence." Work hours are flexible; lunch and snacks are all for free. Of 250 employees, 150 hold a doctorate.

The IT giants in the U.S. are making a fierce effort to acquire British AI start-ups, as Google opted for Deepmind. Microsoft has bought Swiftkey (automatic keyboard detecting AI); Amazon and Apple have acquired EB Technology (AI platform) and Vocal IQ (AI voice recognition), respectively. The CNBC recently reported that a stable ecosystem has been established where the entrepreneurship of AI specialists from Oxford and Cambridge translates into financial success. Under the motto of "Future Fifty" endorsed by the Cameron administration starting in 2013, the core start-ups are enjoying various benefits. Over the last two years, a whopping 12,000 businesses cropped up in London alone, with some 90,000 start-ups sprouting across the country. Their annual revenue growth rate runs as high as 33%.

▷As for the reason behind Britain’s prominent status as a AI powerhouse, the British daily Telegraph cited the social atmosphere that has been maintained since the era of Alan Turing, the father of artificial intelligence who developed the world’s first computer. Britain is a nation of science fiction. Doctor Who, the SF drama themed around time traveling that has been produced and aired by the BBC, is incorporated in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running show on TV since 1963). The Space Odyssey (1968), the first movie on the theme of artificial intelligence, was also based on the story written by Arthur C. Clark, one of the most influential authors of science fiction in Britain.

▷Baptized with such flourishing culture, the British youth are naturally identifying themselves as the AI generation. Indeed, the nation is moving one step ahead. In 2014, the government introduced coding (computer programming) in school curriculum for elementary to high school students, and from September last year, the BBC has provided a news service visualizing jobs that will disappear with the evolution of AI. Science circles are paying a keen attention to see whether Britain, the epicenter of the first industrial revolution, will be the starting point of the fourth industrial revolution that will be led by artificial intelligence.

허문명논설위원 angelhuh@donga.com