Professor Subramanian Ramamoorthy, Professor Stefanos Zafeiriou, and Professor Steve Benford have been awarded UKRI Turing AI World-Leading Researcher Fellowships.
The Turing AI Fellowships are part of the AI Sector Deal's skills and talent package aimed at retaining, attracting, and developing the best and brightest AI international researchers. The programme is delivered by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) on behalf of UKRI, in partnership with The Alan Turing Institute and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
According to the Turing Institute announcement, EPSRC Executive Chair Professor Charlotte Deane said: "To ensure that we capitalise on the enormous potential of AI and also ensure that it serves the needs of society we need to support bold thinking. That is what the UKRI Turing AI World-Leading Researcher Fellowships are all about, allowing adventurous thinkers from the UK and across the world to thrive and develop ideas that will benefit us all."
The Turing announcement notes the following in regards to the scope of the work.
Professor Ramamoorthy at the University of Edinburgh 'is developing assistive autonomous systems that are person-centered and adaptable to individual users. These systems could be applied in areas such as personal care, autonomous surgery, and automated driving.'
At Imperial College London, Professor Zafeiriou is working to enhance 'smart assistants' ability to process and work with complex data. His research includes creating normative data to assist doctors with surgery planning, cancer diagnosis, and predicting climate change.'
Professor Benford from the University of Nottingham is 'combining art and AI to explore how technology can help humans make sense of the world. His work, through artistic collaborations, investigates how AI systems can embrace ambiguity, require interpretation, and use failure as a source of creativity.'
Current fellows include Professor Michael Wooldridge, who brought AI to the public eye through the 2023 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, and Professor Mirella Lapata, who established the Generative AI Laboratory to ensure that generative AI benefits society and stimulates economic growth.