New centre to explore how AI can help business

A new department due to open at the University of Cambridge later this year will look at how artificial intelligence (AI) can boost the economy.

The university said The Bennett School of Public Policy would be the first major new academic department at Cambridge to be established this century.

Research priorities will include examining how to use AI in both the private and public sectors.

Prof Deborah Prentice, University of Cambridge vice-chancellor, said: "The new school will harness Cambridge expertise from across the social, physical and medical sciences to take on the most urgent policy challenges of our age."

In 2023, the university set out to enable researchers to better understand the "double-edged sword" of AI.

Dame Diane Coyle, Bennett professor of public policy at the university, said: "The era of making policy in silos, where an issue is either just an education or an economy problem, for example, needs to be put behind us.

"Today's challenges, from effective uses of AI to reviving towns and regions, demand solutions that reflect expertise across disciplines and sectors."

She said the United Kingdom and European Union needed to "skill-up a generation of policymakers to be smart data consumers who understand data governance".

Researchers from the school are investigating AI adoption by businesses, and working with the Civil Service on AI workflows.

Work is also taking place to examine how to bring together UK mayors and devolved leaders most effectively.

The school's leadership believe it will be able to help foster a generation of "tech-savvy" and socially aware policy makers.

Michael Kenny, professor of public policy at the university, said: "With its place at the heart of Cambridge, experts on everything from sustainable economics to quantum computing will come together at the Bennett School.

"We aim to train government thinkers committed to advancing good growth- fairly shared, inclusive and sustainable - who can set the policy agency for a rapidly changing world."

Research will also continue into reforming the way the government works to tackle geographical inequality.

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