The University of Edinburgh has received £24 million in funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to boost AI innovation.

Of the nine centres announced as part of EPSRC’s £80m UK-wide investment in applying AI to real world data and research, Edinburgh will lead or be involved in more than half, further cementing its place as a driving force in the development of AI in the UK.

Using AI to develop more efficient semiconductors, design more complex microchips, and improve the early prediction of debilitating diseases are some of the potential outcomes of the funding.

The AI Hub for Productive Research and Innovation in Electronics (APRIL) will seek to bring the benefits of AI to the UK electronics industry.

APRIL plans to develop AI tools to accelerate the development of key components such as new semiconductor materials, complex microchip designs, and system architectures – leading to faster, cheaper, greener, and overall more power-efficient electronics.

APRIL will be led by Edinburgh’s Regius Chair of Engineering, Professor Themis Prodromakis.

Further, the EPSRC AI Hub for Causality in Healthcare AI with Real Data (CHAI) will develop new ways for unearthing important links in complex health data.

CHAI aims to develop AI that can empower decision making tools to improve challenging tasks such as the early prediction, diagnosis and prevention of disease, and, crucially, to improve the safety of such technology in healthcare.

Researchers aim to use AI to tackle key societal health challenges, lead by Edinburgh’s Professor Sotirios Tsaftaris, Canon Medical/RAEng Chair in Healthcare AI.

“Successful and ethical applications of AI in healthcare diagnosis and power-efficient electronics could help to address key societal issues, such as our ageing population, global energy use and climate change,” said professor Sir Peter Mathieson principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Edinburgh.

“It is an honour and a great opportunity for our engineers to be leading two of EPSRC’s AI research hubs and I very much look forward to seeing what the future brings in terms of new technologies and innovations in AI.”

Each hub is set to receive £12m each from the EPSRC and will involve researchers from the University’s School of Informatics, School of Mathematics, the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine with input from the Bayes Centre – the University’s innovation hub for data science and AI.

Further, a separate Edinburgh-led project on the responsible use of AI has also received an additional £9.6m to fund its ongoing work.

The Bridging Responsible AI Divides (BRAID) programme has received £2m from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) for six ten-month studies to define responsible AI in a number of sectors, with a further £7.6m for the second phase of the project.

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“Artificial intelligence is already transforming our world. EPSRC supports world-leading research to unlock its potential and ensure it is developed and used in an ethical and responsible way,” prof Charlotte Deane, executive chair of EPSRC said.

“Long-term research funding has led to revolutionary advancements that have made AI a powerful tool for many applications.

“These hubs will deliver revolutionary AI innovations and tools in sectors from healthcare to energy, smart cities and environment. They will achieve this by solving key challenges and improving our understanding of AI helping to drive the increased productivity and economic growth promised by this technology.”