Next Monday and Tuesday - 15th and 16th June – I am hosting “The Applied AI Summit”, being held at Jesus College, Cambridge This annual summit is the brainchild of Heba Bevan – the powerhouse Founder and CEO of Utterberry and one of the UK’s leading tech entrepreneurs. For delegate passes, see link below applied-ai-summit.com/

Last week I attended a Cambridge conference for professionals working in artificial intelligence (AI) – a key growth-sector. With so many British start-ups at the cutting edge of the AI revolution, it was uplifting. But it was depressing too, as there seems to be so little capital available to help such companies thrive. Back in 2014, Deep Mind – a path-breaking AI firm founded by three young Brits – was sold to Google, amidst lacklustre backing from UK investors. A recent House of Lords report warned that Britain remains merely “an incubator for AI companies”, rather than a place where such firms of the future can expand, in turn helping the British economy to grow. Dr Heba Bevan, the founder and CEO of @UtterBerry, organised the Cambridge AI conference. Her UK-based firm makes patented AI-powered wireless smart sensor systems now successfully being used across a range of sectors, from monitoring bridges and other infrastructure to trains and Formula One cars. Utterberry has contracts with Crossrail, Thames Tideway and a host of bodies across Asia and the Middle East – but has struggled to raise cash. “Britain has become a very tough place to do business - my energy bills are ridiculously high and the country I love seems incapable of backing promising small firms,” says Bevan. “We’re losing lots of our best tech companies, including those focussed on AI, to overseas jurisdictions – and that will seriously hit our broader economic growth over the years to come”. 🧵6/7