Manchester invented modern computing. Now we want to lead the world in AI

Climate change and poverty – these are the kind of global problems artificial intelligence (AI) could help fix, according to a government minister. And visiting Manchester this week, he said the city should be at the forefront of this fight.

In the last year, the world has woken up to the amazing advances of AI. This type of technology, in which machines are trained to perform complex tasks - mimicking human ability - is already transforming many aspects of modern life.

From virtual assistants such as Siri on our mobile phones to X-ray analysis in the NHS, we are using AI every day without even realising it. But in its most basic form, machine learning is nothing new – in fact, the first successful AI programme which ran on a computer in Manchester was written in 1951.

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Since then, computer scientists have competed to pass the test devised by wartime codebreaker and Manchester university alumnus Alan Turing which, he argued, proves whether a machine is 'intelligent'. In late 2022, AI software ChatGPT was said to have had passed the Turing test by fooling a human into thinking they are speaking to another human – although some dispute this.

There have been warnings about the speed at which machines are learning, but there are no signs that the rate of advance will slow down any time soon. In Manchester, academics and businesses are embracing it – and local leaders want the success of their research to spread across the region.

There are currently 900 researchers 'actively engaged' in AI at the University of Manchester (UoM), including specialists such as Samuel Kaski, described by professor Richard Curry, the university's