Meeting of the Parliament 13 November 2019
The potential and indeed current effects that artificial intelligence and its attendant advantages will have on the economy have been well documented and extensively considered.
The problem that we face in Scotland is that, although we have exceptional infrastructure for a great many things, as Robin Watson said just last week at the business in Parliament conference in this chamber, it was suitable a century ago. My Conservative colleague Alan Mak MP highlighted that the so-called fourth industrial revolution has the potential to add £630 billion to the UK economy by 2035.
However, that comes with a significant caveat: the considerable restructuring of an economy such as Scotland’s needs to be carried out in such a way that the 15 million jobs that the Bank of England has said may be vulnerable to the proliferation of Al are repositioned to make full use of its advantages. We cannot allow the interface of Al and data-driven technologies to become an enemy of a great swathe of our employment market.
Throughout the centuries, the United Kingdom has been at the forefront of adoption and has enhanced our economy as technologies and techniques have been invented and adapted. New developments do not have to affect people and economies negatively, although I accept that no Government has ever managed to get everything right all of the time.
In the 18th century, we saw the start of the extension of the right to vote to working people, and simultaneously embraced the leaps and bounds of steam power, assembly production and mechanisation in improving the lives and outcomes for working people.
We need to work on a cross-party basis, to ensure that reasonable scepticism about change to our economy does not prevent us from seizing with both hands new opportunities for innovation and progress.
Others have already mentioned the contributions of universities in Scotland, such as Heriot-Watt here in the Lothian region. Following their example, we should not think of the advance of Al as the enemy of employment but should work to ensure that it helps us to enable employment and the advancement of the improvements that we seek in the lives of the people of Scotland.
Data-driven technology can do much to help Scotland on its way towards, for example, a decarbonised and increasingly efficient energy supply. Marcus Stewart wrote in his report for the National Grid that smart devices and the internet of things have already made vast strides in preventing waste and allowing a more adaptable energy infrastructure across the country.
If the £13 billion of value that has already been referred to by others is to be fully recognised by the Scottish economy, it is of the utmost importance that we address the new challenges that are presented by this technology at every level, educational and professional, and that we recognise that Al and data-based work should not be resisted but embraced. Less well recognised and perhaps less well discussed or understood is the leading role that those technologies will have for consumers. I will again refer to the example of energy production, in which Scotland leads much of Europe in its use of renewables. Al and data will play leading roles in driving down the cost of energy for working people.
The interaction between Al, data and other subsets of technology with our traditional economy is only set to expand further in the years to come. I therefore welcome the UK Government’s commitment to bring forward a national retraining scheme with an initial commitment of £100 million, which was announced in last year’s budget.
We can move forward with Al and technology in a positive and constructive way, and Scotland can play a leading role if we get it right. We must resist Luddite tendencies, while continuing to eat our lentils, neeps and tatties, but we must move forward with AI and the new technology that we have.
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