With interest in generative AI exploding–– trends site Exploding Topics reports a
1,143% increase in search interest in “AI voice generator” and a 268% increase in searches for “AI coach”––the technology has moved out of the realm of tech-savvy early adopters.
So much so that recent research from CybSafe found that 52% of UK office workers have entered work information into a generative AI tool, and 38% say they have shared data they would not casually reveal to a friend in a pub.
As AI adoption increases, so do the risks. “Generative AI has enormously reduced the barriers to entry for cyber criminals trying to take advantage of businesses,” says Dr Jason Nurse, CybSafe’s director of science and research.
Despite the risks, users like generative AI because of the productivity benefits, with 69% of UK respondents saying the benefits outweigh the security risks.
However, more than 60% of employees are not confident in their ability to discern AI-generated text from human-written text, and it is clear that businesses and organisations need to do more to close those gaps and educate their workforces.
As the AI juggernaut accelerates, governments are getting on board with legislation. In the UK, frameworks are being put in place,
outlined in a white paper published in March.
It sets out guidelines for “responsible use” of AI, which will be measured against five principles: safety, security, and robustness; transparency and explainability; fairness; accountability and governance; and contestability and redress.
As the UK’s AI industry thrives, it currently employs over 50,000 people and the sector contributed £3.7 billion to the economy last year. The UK government was ranked third in the 2021 global AI Readiness Index, and first in Europe, says
Oxford Insights.
UK’s most AI-ready
SAS’ AI Cities Index 2023 says the UK is “in the golden time of the information age,” identifying a number of the most
AI-ready cities and boroughs in the country.
Edinburgh comes out on top thanks to the quality of its universities which include the University of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt, and Edinburgh Napier.
Already known for its AI excellence is Cambridge, which came second on the list thanks to the fact it has the highest number of AI-related job roles available within its vicinity.
Oxford, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Glasgow, and Cardiff were the next entries on the SAS’ AI Cities Index 2023. When it comes to London, it is the borough of Hillingdon that is the one to watch; it beat out the business hubs of Islington, Southwark, and
Westminster in a list of the boroughs leading the way in AI to drive productivity and plug the skills gap.
That is good news for future job growth and if you have AI skills now, you are in a great place to look for a new role in a city that suits you.
If you are in the market, the
Finextra Job Board contains thousands of jobs across the financial services and fintech industries. Discover three open roles below.
Staff Engineer (AI Platform), Signal AI, London
SignalAI is looking for a
Staff Engineer to take on a guiding role, working within a close-knit, cross-functional team leveraging a continuous delivery mindset to enable platform outcomes and drive business value. Your contributions will cover the entire technology lifecycle, including
discovery, technical feasibility, cost analysis, design and implementation.
You will love building products as part of a cross-functional team focused on an iterative, outcome-driven approach, believe in collaboration as a way of working, understand the benefits of the DevOps mentality and are comfortable building new solutions
while being responsible for the day-to-day operations of existing ones.
Get all the requirements here.
AI Technical Architect, PwC, Manchester
PwC is looking for an
AI Technical Architect to help with the design and engineering for its business-facing AI applications. Applications deal with a range of technology, from generative AI through to optimisation modelling.
You will work with other technical specialists and subject matter experts from wider teams and business SMEs, building technology assets. You will need practical experience with detailed knowledge of software development (.NET, Go, and Python), cloud environments
(GCP, AWS, and Azure), and deployment and monitoring of compute intensive resources (i.e. MLOps).
Interested?
You can apply here.
Senior AI Research Engineer, Citi, London
Citi is seeking a
Senior AI Research Engineer to seize the opportunity to explore generative AI, machine learning and its real-world applications at scale. You will rapidly prototype ideas, approaches and methods in the AI space as well as read, implement, and improve the
latest papers in the AI field. You will need a relentless passion to learn more and go deep into machine learning and generative AI concepts, bringing your research to engineer products that shape Citi’s future.
To be considered, you should be a well-known contributor to opensource and always thinking out of the box tooling, using and standardising with methods of creating APIs, ML/Ops automation and more. Additionally, you will have experience supporting fast-paced
startup engineering teams.
See all details here.
For more roles hiring in the fintech space, via the Finextra Job Board.