Getting AI safety right and the danger of leaving it to Big Tech – Graphcore CEO Nigel Toon

UKTN | The Podcast

UKTN

Funding, Marketing, Hr, Business, Entrepreneur, Uktech, Investing, Technology, Sales, Entrepreneurship, Tech

5.0 • 6 Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Nigel Toon, co-founder and CEO of Graphcore, discusses the goals of the AI Safety Summit, the danger of letting commercial interests and Big Tech shape regulations, and the shortcomings of government when it comes to reining in AI risks.

Bristol-based Graphcore designs hardware and software for intelligent processing unit (IPU) systems. Its technology is used to power AI and machine learning applications. As Toon puts it, Graphcore is the “seller of the picks and shovels” powering the AI revolution. It became one of the UK’s most valuable private tech companies in 2020 after a $222m funding round gave it a valuation of $2.8bn. Toon answers questions about the company’s plan to seek new investment after losses widened last year. Toon was previously CEO at two VC-backed processor companies and co-founder and board director at Icera, a 3G cellular modem chip company, which was sold to Nvidia in 2011.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	We are obviously right in the middle of this whole revolution.
0:10.4	We are the sellers of the picks and shovels that make it all possible.
0:15.6	You know, we're not writing the algorithms that our customers are doing that. You cannot rely on the AI making the final decision.
0:24.6	We need to ensure that it's the humans that develop it,
0:27.6	the humans that apply it and use it,
0:29.6	they are the ones who ultimately need to be regulated.
0:33.6	We need to make sure that we put in place the right types of regulation and controlled,
0:42.3	but I don't think we can rely on our governments who don't have the technical skills to be able to do that.
0:51.3	From the first time founders to the funds that back them, innovation needs different.
0:57.1	Our episode partner, HSBC Innovation Banking, is proud to accelerate growth for tech and
1:02.9	life science businesses, creating meaningful connections and opening up a world of opportunity
1:08.0	for entrepreneurs and investors alike. Discover more at www. hsbc
1:14.2	innovation banking.com slash EM dash GB. Hello and welcome to the UKTN podcast, a weekly chat
1:26.3	with the movers and shakers of the UK tech industry
1:28.8	and the destination for all things UK tech related. And this week I'm joined by Nigel Toon,
1:34.9	the co-founder and CEO of Graphcore, a firm that has built a new type of processor to accelerate
1:40.4	machine learning and AI applications. Welcome Nigel. Hello, thank you for having me on. Now, this podcast, Nigel, is going out the day before
1:49.0	what has become the hottest party invite in town, the AI summit, organised by the UK government,
1:55.3	taking part at the historic home of code breaking in Bletchley Park, and you are on the guest list.
2:01.2	Now, the aim of this summit is to crack a very different type of code,
2:06.1	what the implications of the AI revolution will be on society.
2:10.4	That's a huge task for a two-day gathering, isn't it?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from UKTN, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of UKTN and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.