Aitrium AI founder David Purse to attend Department for Science, Innovation and Technology summit after Corporate Livewire award win
THE founder of a Lymington-based artificial intelligence firm is set to brief the government on the potential dangers and benefits of the technology at a meeting in London.
Former Brockenhurst College student David Purse has been invited to speak tomorrow (Tuesday) at a meeting being hosted by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology on the risks and opportunities presented by AI ahead of an official AI Safety Summit in November.
Mr Purse runs Aitrium AI, a small team of tech experts working to develop a ‘humanlike’ companion artificial intelligence programme that can help combat social isolation.
The company recently won the Best UK AI Startup award at the Corporate Livewire Innovation and Excellence Awards before they were asked to address the government.
Lymington born and raised Mr Purse told the A&T: “The award is a testament to the dedication and hard work of our small team in the field of artificial intelligence.
“After the award win, we were invited by a company called techUK to attend the AI Safety Summit.
“They had put out a call for companies working in AI to advise the government on safety, legislation and how we move forward. We sent them a speculative email in reply and they asked us to attend.”
He continued: “AI is really hot right now, but it’s also a little bit of a wild west and it needs specific legislation.
“There are two big sides to AI at the moment. There are commercial AIs like ChatGPT which are quite closed in terms of what you can do with them.
“There are also what we call ‘open source’ AIs which people can run on their home PCs and it’s much easier for people to do their own thing with it and use it how they see fit.
“We think it’s important to have open source AI because it democratises what it can do for people. But while there are no barriers for entry, it also has potential to be misused. Legislating on its use will be difficult but we do think it’s important.
“I will also tell the summit that education about AI is important to teach people how to spot its use in generating fake imagery, videos and domain names. Criminals are already using AI to help them word their scam phishing emails.”
Aitrium AI is still in the testing and development phase of its companion AI software, and Mr Purse said the firm was “not quite ready” to bring a commercial product to the market.
He said: “We have to be very careful because we’re designing something for people who could be vulnerable, but we’re really impressed by the potential social impact this could have for anyone facing a sense of isolation.”
Now in his 40s, Mr Purse says he has been working on AI software for the past 25 years.
He said: “Back in the 1980s I was writing code on the ZX Spectrum. Computing and AI has always been an interest and an aptitude of mine, but over the last two or three years there have been some big leaps forward.
“What I was working on 25 years ago was nothing compared to what we’re working with now.
“Back then, AI was essentially a database of answers that would try to match the questions you asked to its list of answers.
“But now, for example, if you ask ChatGPT the same question 20 times, you’ll get slightly different answers each time – it just shows how the technology is evolving.”
