Behind the Manchester Prize: Azeem Azhar on how the Prize addresses AI Innovation Gap for Public Good (22/08/24)

Manchester Prize Judge Azeem Azhar discusses AI as the defining technology of our time and reflects on how the Prize is filling a critical gap by catalysing ‘for good’ AI innovation.

As the founder of Exponential View, I am often asked why I was inspired to focus my career on AI. The truth is, I didn’t explicitly choose AI. Instead, I have found myself drawn into it as part of technology’s broader journey. AI is the technology of our era, shaping the future in profound ways. It sits within humanity’s long history of encoding the world around us so that machines can help expand our capabilities. The current eruption of AI represents an intersection of advancements in science and technology that allows us to make sense of and manipulate the world around us.

Over the past decade, through my work with Exponential View, I have continually had to grapple with the duality of AI. It simultaneously amazes and disappoints. It offers tremendous opportunities while carrying uncertain risks. The real challenge lies in understanding and embracing the intricacies of AI, its underlying drivers, its possible paths, and what we are trying to achieve. I hope holding these dualities simultaneously enables people to navigate the technology better and take a balanced and nuanced perspective.

“There come these moments where the science improves enough, and we get better ways, either of being able to make sense of the world or better ways of being able to manipulate it. AI happens to sort of sit in that evolution on both sides.”

Public Good Implications

The Manchester Prize’s objective of catalysing AI for public good is important. Most of  the biggest challenges facing the UK require the ability to process and make sense of information, to make the right decisions. As AI is a huge transformative power, it is poised to open up policy spaces and deliver new opportunities and greater degrees of freedom for us to operate in. However, this potential can only be realised if we ask the right questions, make informed decisions, and encourage broad participation in its use and development. AI will enable us to tackle today’s challenges more effectively, but the journey will be incremental and require careful deliberation. Meaningful progress and impact requires the right combination of technology and thinking.

The smooth functioning of modern society relies on our ability to process information to make informed decisions. Take something as prosaic as your local supermarket. We take well-stocked shelves for granted, but they’re only possible because we have mastered information management. When we consider facing bigger challenges in the UK, we can expect data to play a key role, and so applying AI will likely make solutions both cheaper and more efficient.

The Manchester Prize is an excellent example of how we can harness AI’s potential. The diversity of the prize’s entrants, both in terms of the problems they are addressing and the solutions they have proposed, reflects the breadth of AI’s applicability in the UK. Some entries are focused on a problem in a very specific location, while others have taken a much broader approach. The entrants demonstrate genuine innovative ideas, tackling problems that the private sector might overlook. The Prize serves as a catalyst for the finalist teams, compressing their timelines and pushing them to deliver tangible milestones within a short period. This pressure forces them to hone in on specific proof points, which is crucial for turning cutting-edge ideas into real-world applications. The diversity of perspectives among the judges further ensures that the outcomes are not monocultural. This is crucial because, in truth, it is near impossible to determine which technologies are going to be both successful and impactful. By taking the risk of recognising and awarding a diverse range of 10 teams at this stage, the Manchester Prize could reveal opportunities that may prove fertile for years to come.

“The Manchester Prize fills a gap for companies that the traditional private sector will be slow to lean into. These are novel technologies”

Technical Risks

However, as we celebrate AI’s potential, we must also recognise the importance of safeguarding the public against its potential risks. Every technology carries risks, and as AI is a powerful technology we can expect the risks to manifest at a similar scale. It’s also important to keep in mind that public trust in AI is still developing, as evidenced by surveys like the Edelman Trust Barometer, which shows that many Brits remain more apprehensive than optimistic. The Manchester Prize gets the balance right, the judging panel evaluated risks and analysed impact early in the development process, ensuring that the benefits of the finalists’ AI could contribute to an improvement in the public’s daily lives.

In the end, AI is not just a tool; it’s a general-purpose technology that can do many things. Whether it’s supporting small businesses’ workloads or developing advanced medical treatments, AI’s potential is vast. The Manchester Prize fills a critical gap, encouraging the development of innovative solutions that might otherwise be overlooked. It’s an exciting time for AI, and I’m eager to see how these technologies will continue to evolve and shape our world. As the prize moves forward, its key to success will be to maintain a balanced perspective, embracing AI’s potential while being mindful of its risks. By doing so, we can ensure that AI contributes positively to our society, creating a better future for all.