The Science and Technology Secretary has written an Op-Ed within the Yorkshire Post on Barnsley changing into the UK’s first Tech Town.
People in Yorkshire aren’t any stranger to vary. This county has at all times been a cradle for invention and innovation.
It is the birthplace of stainless-steel, the marine chronometer, the world’s oldest frequently working railway and the X-ray.
Yorkshire is now on the centre of one other main technological change – the appearance of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
AI is now not an summary thought – it’s already altering how we stay study and work.
Scientists are discovering new medicine in months as a substitute of years. Doctors are diagnosing ailments extra precisely. Teachers are saving time on lesson planning and marking. Small companies are utilizing AI to chop admin and perceive their prospects.
The prospects are huge – however so is the danger of repeating the errors of the previous the place alternatives had been uneven and communities had been left behind.
And that’s what brings me to Barnsley. Once a lynchpin of British manufacturing within the final Industrial Revolution, Barnsley is now stepping ahead to guide the following one.
Because Barnsley has became the UK’s first Tech Town – and with it the possibility to be a nationwide trailblazer for how AI can be utilized in public providers, well being, training, and at work enhance on a regular basis lives, for folks from all backgrounds.
All with the complete heft of the British state firmly behind the city’s ambitions – however led by native folks, for native folks.
By totally embracing the alternatives supplied by this new know-how we can rework lives, companies and providers.
It might end in smoother NHS check-ins and quicker triage at Barnsley Hospital, lecturers utilizing secure AI instruments to enhance pupils’ studying, and free AI and digital abilities coaching for folks of all ages, so nobody is shut out of the roles and alternatives of the longer term.
And the growth of The Seam Digital Campus into one of many UK’s first devoted AI campuses will imply companies get the assist they should adapt to the age of AI.
Crucially, a number of the world’s most influential tech firms – Microsoft, Cisco and Adobe – are backing Barnsley’s ambitions.
Barnsley is already forward of the curve, due to native leaders and innovators who’re harnessing know-how’s potential, proper now. This is among the first councils to make use of AI to ease the paperwork burden on social care groups.
Young folks at Barnsley College are already getting hands-on expertise with cutting-edge know-how.
Health on the excessive avenue is modernising how residents entry well being checks. Even robotic supply canine have been trialled in town’s pavements. Barnsley has by no means been afraid to attempt one thing new.
Barnsley’s Tech Town standing will assist construct on this progress.
And on the coronary heart of all of it is the folks of Barnsley themselves. Over the approaching months, residents can be invited to a collection of “Tech Town Halls” to assist form how AI is used of their faculties, hospitals, workplaces and excessive streets. This is AI constructed with the neighborhood, not imposed on it.
If we can present – right here in Barnsley – that AI can make a youngster extra assured within the classroom, make a go to to hospital faster and simpler, or assist a native enterprise develop, then we can present what is feasible for the entire nation. Barnsley was on the coronary heart of commercial revolution.
Now it has the possibility to be the showcase for the technological revolution – and this time, we’re decided that nobody is left behind.
DSIT media enquiries
Email [email protected]
Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 6pm 020 7215 3000