Meet the AI ‘pioneers’ behind Britain’s biggest infrastructure projects
Businesses can benefit from artificial intelligence (AI) regulation creating “trusted brands”, the man using the technology to power the restoration of parliament – among other major infrastructure projects – has said.
Rishi Sunak’s calls to regulate AI can benefit the industry, nPlan founder Dev Amratia has said, by allowing startups to position themselves as “safe, ethical, tested and trustworthy”.
Speaking to City A.M. software CEO and former government AI expert said: “What do businesses want? They want to make money.
“If I can use that form of regulation and control as the opportunity creator in a global arena – who would you rather pick? Some vendor from China that has no regulation whatsoever? One from the US that also has no regulation? Or the one that has this trusted brand?
“My instinct tells me that that trusted brand will win on the longer haul.”
AI headlines
AI has made headlines in recent months amid a leap forward in public-facing versions of the technologies.
While the government is making efforts to position Britain as a world leader on regulation.
The project – known as restoration and renewal – to ensure the Houses of Parliament remains a safe workplace and historic site for future generations has become politically controversial. It follows debates over whether MPs should ‘decant’ – i.e. move elsewhere – for the duration.
Amratia’s firm uses a version of large language model technology – similar to ChatGPT and Bard – to manage large-scale construction projects and predict outcomes and timeframes.
‘Displace jobs’
And Amratia, who is a former Theresa May-era advisor, believes his creation – also used on HS2 and the Transpennine Express – is part of a technological revolution which will transform workplaces.
“AI will displace jobs at a scale that we have never witnessed before… it is very rational to worry because the change is inevitable,” he said.
But he stressed that while nPlan means consultants and project workers no longer have to sit and work through the minutiae, “have those people been fired now?
“No. None – zero per cent of those people have been fired from their jobs, but 100 per cent of them have found new and repurposed ways to operate doing more valuable work.”
nPlan is also a Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award finalist, in a contest celebrating the best UK innovations of the year, with the winner to be announced on 13 July.