Ukri Centre Doctoral Tender

Funded Value6865984Funded PeriodApr 19 - Sep 27FunderEPSRCProject StatusActiveProject CategoryTraining GrantProject ReferenceEPS0233561The UK is world leading in Artificial Intelligence AI and a 2017 government report estimated that AI technologies could add 630 billion to the UK economy by 2035. However we have seen increasing concern about the potential dangers of AI and global recognition of the need for safe and trusted AI systems. Indeed the latest UK Industrial Strategy recognises that there is a shortage of highly-skilled individuals in the workforce that can harness AI technologies and realise the full potential of AI. The UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training CDT on Safe and Trusted AI will train a new generation of scientists and engineers who are experts in model-based AI approaches and their use in developing AI systems that are safe meaning we can provide guarantees about their behaviour and are trusted meaning we can have confidence in the decisions they make and their reasons for making them. Techniques in AI can be broadly divided into data-driven and model-based. While data-driven techniques such as machine learning use data to learn patterns or behaviours or to make predictions model-based approaches use explicit models to represent and reason about knowledge. Model-based AI is thus particularly well-suited to ensuring safety and trust models provide a shared vocabulary on which to base understanding models can be verified and solutions based on models can be guaranteed to be correct and safe models can be used to enhance decision-making transparency by providing human-understandable explanations and models allow user collaboration and interaction with AI systems. In sophisticated applications the outputs of data-driven AI may be input to further model-driven reasoning for example a self-driving car might use data-driven techniques to identify a busy roundabout and then use an explicit model of how people behave on the road to reason about the actions it should take. While much current attention is focussed on recent advancements in data-driven AI such a those from deep learning it is crucial that we also develop the UK skills base in complementary model-based approaches to AI which are needed for the development of safe and trusted AI systems. The scientists and engineers trained by the CDT will be experts in a range of model-based AI techniques the synergies between them their use in ensuring safe and trusted AI and their integration with data-driven approaches. Importantly because AI is increasingly pervasive in all spheres of human activity and may increasingly be tied to regulation and legislation the next generation of AI researchers must not only be experts on core AI technologies but must also be able to consider the wider implications of AI on society its impact on industry and the relevance of safe and trusted AI to legislation and regulation. Core techn