User:Janine Lloyd-Jones/draft
| Formerly | Advanced Skills Initiative, ASI Data Science |
|---|---|
| Company type | Private |
| Industry | Artificial intelligence |
| Founded | 2014 (as ASI Data Science) |
| Founder | Marc Warner |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
Key people | Marc Warner, Chief Executive Officer |
| Website | faculty.ai |
Faculty is a private company headquartered in London, UK. It provides software, consulting, and services related to artificial intelligence. The company was founded in 2014 as a fellowship program for PhD graduates. Some of its governmental and political work has attracted conflict of interest concerns.
History
[edit]Faculty was founded by Marc Warner in 2014 under the name Advanced Skills Initiative as a fellowship program for PhD graduates.[1][2][3] Initially, it was primarily known among technology startups in Britain.[4]
Faculty first attracted public attention[2] after a £70,000 contract with Dominic Cummings to provide analytics for the Vote Leave campaign, which supported having the United Kingdom leave the European Union.[3][5] The company won at least £1 million in government contracts over the subsequent 18 months.[3] For example, Faculty reviewed AI adoption in government for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and advised the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) on reducing bias in hiring.[3]
Faculty was awarded a £600,000 contract from Home Office to develop a tool that analyses video, audio, and other content, in order to identify Daesh propaganda.[6][7][8] The software also filtered things like bomb-making instructions and al-Qaeda propaganda.[8] Within a year, some tech companies had started pilot projects, but no one had implemented the technology. It was then used to help police analyse digital evidence collected from suspected terrorists.[8]
The company was renamed to its current namesake "Faculty" in February 2019.[2][3] According to Faculty, it stopped doing political work that same year.[1] In 2020, Faculty won a £400,000 contract to assist the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government in the United Kingdom in its response to COVID-19.[2] Faculty also worked with the NHS during the pandemic to predict hospital admissions and to help the NHS decide where to send equipment, such as ventilators.[1][3]
Software and services
[edit]Faculty develops and implements custom artificial intelligence software for technology, healthcare, engineering, and governmental organisations.[1] For example, it has worked with clients to reduce the number of flyers mailed that are unlikely to result in purchases or reduce the number of sandwiches stored on planes that expire and go to waste.[4] About 80 percent of its business comes from the private sector and 20% is from government work.[4] It also uses its own software tools to collect and visualise data.[1] Faculty clients typically own the models that are developed for them, though Faculty retains the right to use certain algorithms and libraries for other clients.[1]
Faculty started as a fellowship program that mentored PhD graduates before placing them in jobs at participating companies.[1] It still runs the fellowship program. By 2021, 300 graduates and 200 companies had used the fellowship program.[1] The fellowship program is used to attract talent and build relationships with prospective clients.[1]
Conflict of interest concerns
[edit]Faculty has connections to political figures in UK government.[2][3] In some instances, Faculty's government contracts have raised conflict of interest concerns.[3] Faculty said it complies with conflict of interest best practices and government procurement procedures.[2]
Faculty founder Marc Warner's brother was a political advisor with access to the meetings of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).[1] His brother also worked with Dominic Cummings on the Vote Leave campaign that Faculty was later hired for.[4] A Faculty executive was on the board of CDEI, when CDEI chose to hire Faculty. Faculty said the executive recused himself from the decision.[3] The Department of Health gave Faculty £32,000 worth of COVID-related contracts without getting competitive bids, though this was allowed under expedited procurement processes adopted for COVID.[2][3] Additionally, politician Lord Agnew owns £90,000 worth of Faculty's shares.[2] Agnew gave up control of his shares in the company in September 2020.[9]
In May 2017, The Guardian published a story inferring Faculty may have had a connection to the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal. [10] During Faculty's COVID-related work, Faculty founder Marc Warner attended a SAGE meeting, raising criticisms about the prospects of a private company influencing government policies.[4] Warner said he was there at their client's request and would attend whatever meetings their client, the National Health Service, felt was useful.[4] The project also prompted concerns regarding the privacy of patient data used for the project.[4] The company said Faculty itself did not have access to any health data through its work on the project[4] and the data was anonymous.[11]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Nast, Condé (May 5, 2021). "What Faculty is planning next". WIRED UK. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Evans, Rob (June 2, 2020). "AI firm that worked with Vote Leave given new coronavirus contract". the Guardian. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pegg, David (July 12, 2020). "Revealed: Dominic Cummings firm paid Vote Leave's AI firm £260,000". the Guardian. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Boland, Hannah (October 17, 2020). "Meet Marc Warner, whose tech company Faculty is leading Dominic Cummings' Whitehall revolution". The Telegraph. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
- ^ Geoghegan, P. (2020). Democracy For Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics. Head of Zeus. p. 41. ISBN 978-1-78954-602-6. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
- ^ Lomas, Natasha (February 13, 2018). "UK outs extremism blocking tool and could force tech firms to use it". TechCrunch. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
- ^ Hamilton, J. (2021). Brexit: The Establishment Civil War. John Hunt Publishing. p. 164. ISBN 978-1-78904-491-1. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
- ^ a b c Murgia, Madhumita; Bond, David (April 6, 2019). "Businesses show no appetite for anti-terror AI tool". Financial Times. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
- ^ Evans, Rob (September 3, 2020). "Minister relinquishes control of shares in firm given UK government contracts". the Guardian. Retrieved September 2, 2021.
- ^ Cadwalladr, Carole (May 7, 2017). "The great British Brexit robbery: how our democracy was hijacked". the Guardian. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
- ^ Lewis, Paul (April 12, 2020). "UK government using confidential patient data in coronavirus response". the Guardian. Retrieved September 16, 2021.