The AI Of The Possible: Developing Scotland's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy

Having a shared understanding of "What is AI" is the perfect place to start.
While it is a very thorough definition, the only thing that would be nice to see more of is around the predictive intelligence of machines. AI allows computers to make decisions and make predictions.

The focus on predictions will help support many use cases around predictive intelligence and forecasting that are being used across many function.

Yes, absolutely! One of the biggest shortcomings of many AI discussions today is that they overlook/undermine the human element.

As our teams design AI products, we keep our users (the people) at the center of our product experience and strategy. Similarly, the National Performance Framework should definitely be people-centric and it is very well-rounded in its current form, covering all vital areas.

At a macro level, AI applications have proven, tangible economic benefits various industries such as education, construction, oil and gas, manufacturing, etc. These are industries that contribute strongly to Scotland's GDP and hence the entire country as a whole can benefit from these industries thriving.
AI also helps improve the products and services that people use on a day-to-day basis so it improves their overall experience, health and wellbeing.

Digital literacy such as writing email, surfing the internet, finding information online was once upon a time an uncommon task not everyone knew how to do. This is the time for "AI Literacy" where everyone in Scotland should understand what is AI, it's benefits, limitations, risks, and have access to resources to learn about how AI is impacting their day to day lives.

While this is the goal we're trying to fulfill, to get there, we recommend the following actionable items across key segments:
1. Early education (across all classes as appropriate):
- Introducing AI concepts such as introduction to AI and types, how it works, machine decision making, benefits/risks/challenges/myths is extremely key.
- This should be done in a way that gets individuals excited to learn about it and should be hands-on and include a lot of experimentation
- We have seen hackathons be a very successful template in helping students learn key AI concepts while building soft skills such as creative problem solving, collaboration, team building, communication, critical thinking - all of which are the skills of tomorrow.
- Hackathons should be hosted in collaboration with people from academia/education, industry, and government to also be opportunities for students to get employed into AI related fields. This helps companies find the right talent and vice versa

2. Existing workforce
Existing workforce personnel are considered a vulnerable group since they are at a risk of losing their jobs if they don't change their skills to adapt to the "new AI world".

That said, to make sure no one is left behind, the goal should be to introduce "AI Literacy" for all people. For this, workforce re-skilling and retraining is key and the Government should incentivize collaboration and learning both within and across companies in a particular industry/sector/domain. This has been a great model to facilitate AI learning and build new skills among people, together. We are also seeing innovative ways to get employees to innovate by implementing the hackathon model within organizations as well to help foster innovation and fresh thinking.

3. The Scotland government has done a good job at equal access programs and those efforts to continue to reduce the digital divide should continue

The overarching vision of the strategy and supporting strategic goals are very aligned with the way a government should be thinking about these approaches. However, as a team of folks working in major technology companies, we know that AI innovation is happening around the world. An increased outlook on globalization is needed to draw in fresh ideas and collaboration from the best minds across the world.

Thus, there is no direct or indirect focus on globalization highlighted in the current vision and goals. This can easily be introduced through a goal highlighting how Scotland can strive to be a world leader in a selective aspects of AI such as AI literacy or programs or in differentiated policies around employer re-training (to list a few examples).

The view of Scotland's ecosystem and strategy is very well-rounded. This is one of the best views on AI Learning and implementation that we have seen. Definitely pioneering and a great example for others to follow suit.

No comments on the strategic themes except that our team has extensive experience across themes 1 (Development of AI and AI-based products) and 3 (Development of resources) and would be happy to talk through actionable items for each or any of these in future focus groups as we have a valuable perspective on what works and what doesn't work.

This is one of the biggest challenges that the AI industry is facing as a whole and is trying to solve.
At the root of the solutions lies a central board of public policymakers that have a deep understanding of AI. Ideally, this board should comprise of people with different backgrounds and areas of expertise with a focus on the common good for the people of Scotland.
This body can help provide governance and regulations and will have many responsibilities such as:
- Act as a sounding board for accountability (e.g. who is at fault if a self-driving car killed someone in an accident)
- Push for transparency across AI solutions being developed
- Introduce guidelines and recommendations for effective and ethical AI and introduce guiding principles for the industry to follow such as Ethical AI by design
- Ensure democratization of AI to ensure successful execution of Scotland's primary AI vision and goals (e.g. making sure the AI being developed benefits the people of Scotland and their organization)
- We will see a change in AI regulations and policies around the world. This team can keep a continuous eye on AI updates around the world and enforce changes within Scotland to align with them (e.g. California, USA banned facial recognition technology, European Commission has introduced it's approach for AI excellence and trust - https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/commission-white-paper-artificial-intelligence-feb2020_en.pdf, etc.)

I mentioned it above, but I would like to underline my point that it is very unlikely that we will have one nation that leads in the AI World. To be effective at developing AI, implementing AI, everyone around the world need to learn from each other.

We are at a pivotal moment in AI the industry is going through a major transition and we all face the same challenges and should help collaborate and work towards solving it together.

Scotland should push for it's people to be change makers and share their updates with the rest of the world and draw in talent from around the world to support Scotland's AI mission.

Your team is taking innovative leaps to bring about globalization already (such as drawing in people around the world to participate in the AI Strategy process), it would be great to see it called out a bit more.