UK gov appoints first seats for Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation

data map of UK

On Tuesday, Digital Secretary Jeremy Wright will confirm that more expert advisors have been appointed to help shape the governments Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation.

At the Open Data Institute's annual summit, Wright will confirm all the advisors, including Lord Robert Winston, Dame Patricia Hodgson and Kriti Sharma area among the experts appointed to help shape the centre.

Lord Winston is a world-renowned expert in fertility and genetics, Dame Hodgson is the former head of Ofcom and Kriti Sharma is the VP of AI at Sage Group.

"I'm delighted to be appointed to the board and can't wait to get started," said Sharma. "Augmenting human skills with ethically designed, data-driven technology has the potential to help business thrive like never before.

"The Centre will play a key role in making sure we have an environment which supports ethical innovation and position the UK as a world leader in the development of AI."

The centre is chaired by Roger Taylor, the founder of healthcare data firm Dr Foster and has been established to boost the UK's status as a leader in artificial intelligence. The aim is to lead the debate on how data-driven technologies are used for the maximum benefit of society.

The members of the centres will agree and set out best practice to guide ethical and innovative uses of data and advise the government on the need for specific policy or regulatory action.

The government said this will help make sure new technologies and data are used responsibly so they support the country's businesses and society.

"We are a world leader in artificial intelligence and our modern Industrial Strategy puts pioneering technologies at the heart of our plans to build a Britain which is fit for the future," said Wright.

"But it is crucial that the public have confidence it is being used to improve people's lives and we have the right expertise and framework in place to maximise its potential. I am pleased we have secured global leaders from academia and industry to work alongside us as we develop the world's first Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation."

Bobby Hellard

Bobby Hellard is ITPro's Reviews Editor and has worked on CloudPro and ChannelPro since 2018. In his time at ITPro, Bobby has covered stories for all the major technology companies, such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook, and regularly attends industry-leading events such as AWS Re:Invent and Google Cloud Next.

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