The school will also help continue research to tackle geographical inequality and work on bringing mayors and devolved leaders together to help create effective policy LOUIS ASHWORTH / GRAPH+SAS / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS. ORG/LICENSES/BY-SA/4.0/DEED. EN
Cambridge University has started a new institution with a department aimed at helping businesses grow through AI.
The Bennett School of Public Policy, set to open later this year, will focus specifically on studying how AI can boost the economy. It’s the first time Cambridge has opened a new academic department this century.
The school will focus on research about using AI in both private companies and public services. It will also collaborate with the Civil Service to develop AI workflows and train a generation of “tech-savvy” and socially aware policymakers, according to its leaders.
It will continue research aimed at addressing geographical inequality and work on uniting mayors and devolved leaders to create better policies.
Prof Deborah Prentice, the University’s vice-chancellor, said: “The new school will harness Cambridge expertise from across the social, physical and medical sciences to take on the most urgent policy challenges of our age.”
Professor of public policy Michael Kenny added: “With its place at the heart of Cambridge, experts on everything from sustainable economics to quantum computing will come together at the Bennett School.”
“We aim to train government thinkers committed to advancing good growth- fairly shared, inclusive and sustainable – who can set the policy agency for a rapidly changing world,” he continued.
Dame Diane Coyle, Bennett Professor of public policy, commented: “The era of making policy in silos, where an issue is either just an education or an economic problem, for example, needs to be put behind us,” adding that “today’s challenges, from effective uses of AI to reviving towns and regions, demand solutions that reflect expertise across disciplines and sectors.”
She pointed out that the UK and EU need to “skill-up a generation of policymakers to be smart data consumers who understand data governance”.
Last month, Lord Vallance, recently named Oxford-Cambridge Innovation Champion, announced plans to test AI in peer review tasks as part of a government-funded project.
In 2023, Cambridge highlighted how important it is to get a better handle on the “double-edged sword” nature of AI when launching their Institute for Technology and Humanity.
Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, established in its current form in 1947. To keep our editorial independence intact, neither our print paper nor website receives any funding from Cambridge University or its Colleges.
This means we rely almost entirely on ads for money and expect some tough months ahead.
Despite this challenge we’re exploring creative ways to serve our readers with digital content as well as print!
If you’d like to chip in-even just £1-it would really help cover our costs. Thanks so much if you can support us!
