Press Release
Safety and assurance measures key to maximise AI opportunities
10 May 2024
- Up to 60 industry representatives, regulators, academics, research organisations, and government agencies attend an Applied AI Safety Summit organised and hosted by RAICo at Nottingham University campus
- Event brings together experts in the field of AI from a range of industries to collaborate and discuss learnings and standards to ensure best safety and assurance is put in place for the development of AI technology
AI offers major advantages for a wide range of UK industries – but now is the time to put safety and security measures in place.
That was the message from an Applied AI Safety Summit organised and hosted by RAICo, a collaboration between the UK Atomic Energy Authority, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, Sellafield Ltd and the University of Manchester.
Up to 60 industry representatives, regulators, academics, research organisations, and government agencies attended RAICo’s recent three-day event held at Nottingham University.
RAICo aims to accelerate the deployment of robotics and AI in nuclear decommissioning and fusion engineering and help workforces to adopt and apply new technologies.
The purpose of the event was to bring together experts in the field of AI to collaborate and discuss learnings and standards from a range of industries, to ensure the best safety and assurance is put in place for the development of the technology.
The summit heard that providing assurance was vital if a range of industry sectors are to maximise the potential which AI brings.
Air traffic control, aerospace, automotive, health and nuclear decommissioning industries were all highlighted at the summit for their advances in developing safety and assurance for the application of AI.
Through the use of robotics and AI, RAICo helps remove people from harmful environments across the nuclear sector, achieving safer, faster and more cost-effective solutions.
Phill Mulvana, RAICo’s Safety Manager and Principal Technologist, hosted the summit which posed a range of questions to delegates who worked through key issues in workshops with a view to their findings being incorporated into a RAICo report on Applied AI Safety.
Among key questions posed to delegates were:
- AI’s promise is bound to perceptions of its trustworthiness. As potential applications of artificial intelligence continue to expand the question remains, will users want the technology and trust it?
- How can innovators design AI-enabled products, services and capabilities that are successfully adopted rather than discarded because the systems fail to meet operational requirements, such as end user confidence?
Phill said there were learnings for a wide range of industries from nuclear decommissioning activity at Sellafield Ltd in Cumbria and across the wider Nuclear Decommissioning Authority estate.
He said: “Nuclear is an excellent example of an industry which is overcoming the challenges of working in a safety critical environment. This industry is successfully and safely deploying robotics and AI in an innovative and rapid way. A range of industries and applications can learn from this.”
Phill also stressed why assurance was so crucial in achieving these outcomes. “RAICo is developing AI and robotics technology which is very well controlled. We have to also focus on building governance that is stronger than the technology so that it can be used safely and responsibly.’”
Delegates were given a tour of the Omnifactory® and shown key developments in AI and robotics research being made at the University of Nottingham for applications in industry.
The summit concluded by agreeing key takeaways. There was an acknowledgment that the public are wary of AI – and that industry is approaching the safety and assurance issue more proactively than with other developments of the past.
Kirsty Hewitson, Director of RAICo, said: “As many organisations are working on numerous different projects involving AI in challenging environments, we see a need for industries to work together with a single goal.
“RAICo being an end user led collaboration, we are well placed to lead on the development of AI safety measures which will support the deployment of AI and robotics technologies across industries”.