There is a “desperate skills shortage” in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) but the UK can still compete with the United States, an Oxford professor has said.

Professor Michael Wooldridge, a computer science professor at Oxford University and leading expert in AI, has said more people are “desperately needed” to understand the technology.

Oxford is the UK’s leading centre for AI and Prof Wooldridge said the university was unique in researching AI from every angle, whether that be the ethics surrounding the technology or how to build it.

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Despite the skills shortage, Prof Wooldridge said the UK could easily compete with the United States.

He said: “The US is six times bigger and much better funded but we can definitely compete in terms of skills.”

Prof Wooldridge said competing with China was not realistic as it has scale and resources which aren’t comparable.

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He said: “In China, there are 1.4 billion people, and this means its data sources are going to be dramatically larger and gives them a huge advantage.

“We can’t compete in terms of scale or raw resources, but we can compete in terms of skills.”

Prof Wooldridge's advice for those thinking of applying to study AI in the future at Oxford University was to make sure you are good at Maths.

He said: “For our degrees that is the single skill which is the best discriminator about whether students are going to get a place.”

Prof Wooldridge warned that AI could also be used to influence elections in the UK and the US and saw no reason why this would not happen very soon.

He said: “The fake news in past elections was manually created but what this technology does is create extremely high-quality disinformation to order.

“AI can pick up on your political stance on social media and feed you with fake news regarding this to build up your biases.

“The only thing that is stopping this at the moment is that ChatGPT has built in guard rails, but these aren’t too hard to get around."

Oxford Mail: Professor Michael Wooldridge Professor Michael Wooldridge (Image: Michael Wooldridge)

Prof Wooldridge warned the technology would be a “disruptive force” and have a similar impact as to when computers and the world wide web were first released to the world.

He added: “In situations, where we are talking about mental health, I would be very unhappy if it was rolled out for situations like this.

“But the technology does have the potential to make healthcare available to people who don’t have access.”

Hundreds of staff are currently reaching AI at Oxford University and Prof Wooldridge said it was unrivalled as a research centre in the UK.