The co-founder of leading AI firm DeepMind, which started as a UK company and was sold to Google, says the UK should encourage more risk taking if it wants to become an AI superpower.
Mustafa Suleyman added that he does not regret selling DeepMind to the US giant in 2014.
“The US market is not only huge, but also more predisposed to taking big shots,” he told the BBC.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants the UK to be a global hub for AI.
He has pledged £1bn in funding over the next 10 years, and founded a UK taskforce with a remit of maximising the benefits of the tech while keeping it safe.
This week BBC News is focusing on AI, how the technology affects our lives and what impacts it may have in the near future.
Mr Suleyman said the UK had “every chance” of becoming an AI superpower and praised its research facilities, but added there were not the same opportunities for businesses to grow as there are in the US.
“I think the culture shift that it needs to make is to be more encouraging of large scale investments, more encouraging of risk taking, and more tolerant and more celebratory of failures,” he said.
“The truth is, the US market is not only huge, but also more predisposed to big risk taking, taking big shots and having big funding rounds.”
Mr Suleyman has chosen to base his new company, Inflection AI, in Palo Alto, California, which is also home to the headquarters of Google, Facebook and Tesla.
