‘Tech plans will turn to dust without more maths support’ - PPM responds to Spring Budget 2023

Commenting today following the Chancellor’s Spring Budget, Professor Ulrike Tillmann, President of the London Mathematical Society and spokesperson for the Protect Pure Maths campaign said,

 “Without proper funding in maths, the Chancellor’s plans for a future built on technology and driven by AI will turn to dust.

 “The government’s focus on maths – with the Prime Minister’s proposal for all children to study the subject to 18 and policies aimed at turbocharging UK tech innovation – is welcomed with open arms by mathematical scientists all over in the country. But what’s missing is an understanding of the link between the two. Cutting edge technology without maths is impossible. There is no AI without the language of maths, there is no ChatGPT without mathematical algorithms at its core, there is no funding for start ups without the maths modelling that precedes every financial transaction.

 “Every time our nation has needed a rescue mission, from Alan Turing's breaking ciphers to managing the pandemic, we have depended on mathematics, its modelling power and its theorems.”