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Gloucestershire could be AI 'centre of excellence'

Reuters An Aerial view of the GCHQ site, known as the donut because of it's spherical shape with a hole in the middle. Many cars are seen parked on the exteriorReuters
The county's cyber industry has long benefitted from government intelligence hub GCHQ (pictured) in Cheltenham

Tech experts in Gloucestershire expect the county to benefit from investment in Artificial Intelligence.

The county is home to government intelligence centre GCHQ.

The Prime Minister has announced he wants to "unleash AI" across the UK to boost growth and rejuvenate public services.

New developments such as the Minster Exchange in Cheltenham along with the much anticipated Golden Valley Development will see significant investment in the cyber industry over the next decade.

The AI Opportunities Action Plan is backed by leading tech firms, some of which have committed £14bn towards various projects, creating 13,250 jobs, the government said.

Neil Smith, Managing Director of Cheltenham-based business Reform IT, has welcomed the government announcement.

"Cheltenham and Gloucester particularly are incredibly well positioned to take advantage of the investment that's been announced with the forthcoming cyber park," he said.

"We have an opportunity in Gloucestershire now to develop talent to train people and to become a centre of excellence, for AI development."

Gareth Lister stood outside of SGS Berkeley Green UTC. The college's blue and green curved logo is visible on the building exterior. Mr Lister is wearing a dark blue suit with a white shirt and bright red tie
Gareth Lister (pictured) is the Headteacher of Berkeley Green UTC who specialise in IT and cyber courses

Both the University of Gloucestershire and Berkeley Green UTC have specialist IT courses in which AI development is explored.

Gareth Lister said AI is really good for training, admin and supporting work but wants it to feature more heavily on the curriculum.

"For schools like mine where we can teach the intricacies and the technical details of how exactly AI works and develop those skills in programming in cloud computing in artificial intelligence and cyber security." Mr Lister said.

He added "we need young people to be highly skilled in those sort of areas".

Dr Will Sayers, who heads up the University of Gloucestershire's School for Computing, says the county can take advantage of its current cyber industry.

"We're ideally positioned to benefit from national investment in a way that means our local more established cyber companies will be able to pick up partnerships," Dr Sayers said.

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