AI is already transforming our lives and it transpires that Scotland was and is today at the forefront of this crucial research. The history of Scottish AI stretches back more than 60 years, to the top-secret Bletchley Park of the Second World War code breakers. Glasgow and Edinburgh were AI European leaders in the 1960s and 1980s.
I read an interesting article on AI in the Sunday National and its use in the NHS radiotherapy, “A Cure for the NHS? Artificial intelligence and healthcare in Scotland” (July 14). It mentioned a Donald Michie, the father of British research into AI, who worked with the Bletchley Park code breakers alongside Alan Turing, the famous mathematician and computer scientist. Later, in 1967, at Edinburgh University, he set up Machine Intelligence and Perception, and the article spoke of the work being carried out at Edinburgh University.
Donald Michie devoted his life to the development of computers to perform complex, human-like tasks. Following on from his Bletchley work on Colossus, the world’s first electronic digital computer, he was an early pioneer of machines that can learn. Under his directorship, Edinburgh’s AI department grew until around 1973, when most of the AI research in the UK was taking place in Scotland. By 1970, Edinburgh University was one of the few centres in the world working on AI and today the institution hosts dozens of scientists and PhD students developing the technology. Then I remembered a Glasgow Turing Institute that worked on the code for all the space shuttle landings in the 1980s, but later was forced to close.
READ MORE: Why you should pay for news in the digital era
In 1982, Michie set up the Glasgow Turing Institute, which worked on this code for the space shuttle landings, as a shuttle is like a brick and required complicated code in order to land it. The institute was forced to close in 1994 due to lack of backing by the UK Government. However, the technological and commercial empowerment that should have followed was never fulfilled. The institute went out of business in 1994, amid questions in the House of Commons and bitter recriminations between the scientists and the Scottish Development Agency.
Peter Mowforth, a co-founder, wrote of the institute’s work: “We taught Nasa to fly the space shuttle; created an early version of the web; helped the European Space Agency control its satellites; helped BA maximise flight booking yields; helped Nippon Telegraph configure its networks; helped Enterprise Oil with its discovery programme, and Unilever offset fluctuations in the prices of ice-cream ingredients. We staged the world’s first Robot Olympics in 1990.”
Glasgow’s Turing Institute was closed down due to lack of backing by the UK Government in 1994 as there was apparently no future for computers?! Even as the Turing Institute wrote the code for the space shuttle landings and came up with the idea for a worldwide web!
Mowforth went on: “Someone decided that Britain only really needed three computers as there wasn’t much future in it! Not for the last occasion, at a time when Scotland ruled the roost globally, the plug was pulled.”
Faced with the decline of heavy industry, Britain’s failure to invest in cutting-edge science that could prove economically transformative only began to be reversed in the late 1980s, in reaction to Japanese advances in software design. Earlier this year, the new Labour Government shockingly stopped funding for a new supercomputer at Edinburgh University, even as the university had already spent £32 million on a new building to house it.
I searched for more information and found an interesting Herald article – “Obscure research unit in Scotland flying the space shuttle and the invention of the internet”, from 2014 by Colin Donald.
“When the UK’s Nimrod radar research programme was scuppered in favour of the US Awacs, a quid pro quo was to make the Turing Institute, along with other UK science centres, into an approved centre for US research partnerships, including the Office of Naval Research. These wins for Scotland were classified and are being revealed for the first time by the Sunday Herald.”
Many Scots are fearted and don’t believe in Scots or in our resources. It’s little wonder as the Unionist media constantly promotes Scotland as backward and failing. We must make a positive case for our historic institutions; for the incredible artworks held by Scotland’s national galleries and now on display in the impressive brand-new Scottish art galleries; for our international major arts festivals and some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. Even the ever-changing weather makes for perfect lighting!
I don’t know that people here truly appreciate what’s on offer in Scotland with so much on our doorsteps! Or appreciate the great potential here. We really need more positive articles on all the innovations and crucial research and business start-ups that are today and in the past, happening here in Scotland. I looked up Peter Mowforth, and discovered he lives today in a historic house here in Milngavie on the road up to Mugdock. Small world!
P Keightley
Glasgow
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here