Here are the blogs that Mind Foundry has written recently. We've separated them into their respective topics or sectors to help you find what you're interested in.

• Artificial Intelligence
• Defence & National Security
• Government and Public Sector
• Mind Foundry and Our People

Artificial Intelligence

AI Assurance Explained: Trust, Safety, and Operational Impact

The UK-USA Technology Prosperity Deal sees overseas organisations pledging £31 billion of investment into UK AI infrastructure. As AI investment continues to accelerate, the challenge of assuring new technology is safe to use is now more crucial than ever.

Industrial AI in 2026: From Hype to Real-World Impact

Industrial AI is increasingly coming to the fore in physical industries, but achieving measurable real-world impact requires careful consideration and a strategic approach.

UK Quantum Computing: Leading the Revolution

Of all the technologies being explored today, Quantum technologies are some of the most exciting and potentially most revolutionary, and the UK is at the forefront of the field.

Industrial AI in 2026: Turning Uncertainty into Opportunity

With pilot project failure rates as high as 80%, industries like manufacturing, utilities, and logistics have struggled to capitalise on AI’s benefits. But as the world changes ever more rapidly and unpredictably, resilience and agility become even more necessary. Industrial AI represents an opportunity these industries can’t afford to miss.

AI Regulations around the World - 2025

AI regulations around the world are changing rapidly, and this will have a significant impact on how organisations, businesses, and states go about adopting AI. This piece describes the current global regulatory landscape and why it's important to understand.

Designing Systems with AI in the Loop

An AI in the Loop approach can help mitigate some of AI’s inherent risks, but to deliver real impact in Defence & National Security, AI must also be designed for deployment.

AI in the Loop

The term “Human-in-the-loop” is used as an effective countermeasure to the concerns surrounding the unfettered use of AI. However, as AI becomes more ubiquitous in society, it’s important that we understand why the term has been used, what its limitations are, and why it may be time to consider a new approach to de-risking AI’s use in the most important use cases.

Insuring Against AI Risk: An Interview with Mike Osborne

When used by malicious actors or without consideration for transparency and responsibility, AI poses significant risks. Mind Foundry is working with partners to explore how the insurance industry can help protect against these risks.

What is Continuously Learning AI?

In high-stakes applications, AI often struggles to maintain its performance levels. With certain techniques and approaches, however, we can build AI systems that can continuously learn and adapt on the job.

Green AI: The Environmental Impact and Carbon Cost of Innovation

AI has the potential to help us tackle the problems associated with climate change and global warming. This has helped fuel tremendous growth in AI projects throughout government and the public sector, but this raises the question of the environmental impact of developing these solutions, as well as the carbon cost of innovation

How Quantum Computing and LLMs Will Revolutionise Insurance

This piece details two areas of particular interest in the Aioi R&D Lab - Oxford. One explores how AI can potentially help advance quantum computing to revolutionise traffic management and disaster response. The other project is working to understand how large language models (LLMs) offer insurers the ability to efficiently process unstructured data for claims handling and fraud detection. 

How Do Machines Learn? Meta-learning as an Approach

Human-AI collaboration is fundamental to everything we do at Mind Foundry, and so it’s important that we understand how humans learn compared to machines. In this piece, we dive into the differences between the two learning processes and focus on a particular approach to machine learning called metalearning.

Explaining the Origins of AI

AI has rapidly become integral to organising our lives, going about our jobs, and getting from place to place. In this article, we aim to shed some light on what this technology is and how it works, but also on where AI began, the pioneers that paved the way, and where the technology will end up taking us.

How Machine Learning Models Fail

The reliability of Machine Learning models is of critical importance as the adoption of AI accelerates across society. This blog focuses on model failure, how and why it happens, the value of model observability, monitoring, and governance, and, most importantly, how we can prevent AI model failure from happening in the first place.

What Makes a Machine Learning Model 'Trustworthy’?

Amidst the excitement around AI’s many potential benefits, there are also significant concerns about its impact on society and the associated risks. As AI models and their predictions play an increasingly pivotal role in our lives and society, we discuss what it means for a model to be ‘trustworthy’. 

Explaining AI Explainability

Much of the concern about the risks associated with AI, particularly generative AI and large language models (LLMs), hinges on transparency, interpretability, and explainability. We interviewed Professor Steve Roberts, Co-founder at Mind Foundry and Professor at the University of Oxford, and invited him to share with us how he explains the meanings of these three terms to his students.

The Power to Do Good with AI

The scale of AI development has increased exponentially in recent years, bringing a raft of opportunities and some very real concerns. Here, we discuss how, when adopted responsibly, AI can still have a real and positive impact on our society and our lives.

Approaching Ethical AI Design: An Insider’s Perspective

Embedding ethical design within global applications of AI is going to be one of the most challenging demands of the 21st century, yet it’s also one of the most important. As regulation evolves and machine capabilities improve, the humans in the driving seat of usage, research, implementation, and design will guide our collective capabilities towards a truly human-centric AI.

The AI Adoption Paradox: Can Cautious Adoption Reap Maximum Benefits?

Adopting AI has become a central priority for many organisations in every sector due to the technology’s vast potential. However, adopting AI requires specific considerations, specifically around balancing the desire to adopt AI quickly and effectively with the need to mitigate the potential risks and do so ethically and responsibly.

AI Model Training: Why Continuous Improvement Matters in High-Stakes Applications

As its capabilities advance, AI will inevitably be applied to wider problem sets with more immediate and wide-ranging real-world impacts, bringing higher problem complexity and increased risk. In this piece, we discuss how, in high-stakes applications, improving the performance of these AI systems is no longer an option. It is a fundamental necessity.

5 Reasons Why You Can Better Understand Your Data with AI

Despite advances in AI, there is still a lack of understanding within organisations about the benefits that AI could offer their company. In this blog, we’ve outlined five ways organisations can better manage data with AI supporting them. 

Defence & National Security

AI-enabled Acoustic Intelligence for Anti-Submarine Warfare

From detecting hidden threats to defending critical underwater infrastructure, Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) is a cornerstone of national security. AI and machine learning are transforming the way we navigate and overcome the challenges of the underwater domain. 

AI at the Edge: Transforming Defence Operations

At the edge, every second counts, and every decision matters. To gain and hold an advantage, Defence must design AI and Machine Learning for where the fight is hardest—disconnected, power-constrained, and human-first.

International AI Strategies for Defence and National Security

The Ukraine-Russia war has clearly demonstrated AI’s effectiveness on the battlefield. Across the globe, countries are devising strategies to leverage AI’s game-changing potential for their Defence and National Security.

AI for Sensor Fusion: Sensing The Invisible

In Defence and National Security, mission-critical data often emerges from a multitude of different sensor types. With AI, we can bring this multi-sensor data together and create a clearer picture of complex environments. 

The Business of AI in UK Defence and National Security

Much has been written about the possibilities offered by the widespread adoption of AI in Defence and National Security. But while the technical aspects of an AI system are important, in Defence and National Security, understanding and addressing AI business considerations is an essential step to achieving operational impact.

AI and Sonar: Seeing with Sound

Despite the ocean covering over 70% of the Earth’s surface, we have only physically explored 5% of it. Part of the reason why so much of it is left unexplored is because 90% of the oceans' depths exist in perpetual darkness. At a depth of only 1 metre, just 45% of light permeates through. At 10 metres, that number is down to 16%. Once you get 1000 metres down, all is darkness.  But where light cannot go, something else can... Sound.

Measuring What Really Matters

In Defence and National Security, the scrutiny placed on AI systems and the bar for responsibility and accountability are heightened. It’s paramount that the outputs of every AI model used in the sector are well-aligned with strategic goals, operational priorities, and Western values. AI assurance aims to quantify model performance and rubber-stamp it for ongoing use, but in high-stakes applications like defence, measuring true AI performance and assuring it for real-world operations is more complex than it first appears.

Accelerating AI's Operational Impact

In defence and national security, the nature of problems and the environments in which they occur make operationalising AI hugely challenging. Advances in sensor technology have resulted in an explosion of data that needs to be processed for operators to extract the information within. AI has the potential to be a game-changer in helping overcome this issue and must navigate obstacles in three key areas for this to become a reality.

AI for Sonar: Cutting Through the Noise

In the maritime domain, gaining a better understanding of increasing volumes and higher fidelity sonar data has well-known and potentially game-changing advantages. AI promises huge opportunities to help achieve this in place of traditional approaches, but there are several challenges in the space that make this potential difficult to realise.

AI for Defence: More than Just an Innovation Opportunity

Information is lost in the defence sector because data isn't efficiently processed into human-interpretable insight. The scale of this problem means stakeholders in defence are looking to AI as a possible solution, but this will only become an operationalised reality if AI is understood as more than simply an opportunity to experiment and innovate.

Generative AI: The Illusion of a Shortcut

The rise of Generative AI, especially large language models and other foundation models, has caused huge excitement worldwide. Nevertheless, there are some problems that this technology is fundamentally ill-suited to solve. Here, we outline why this is the case and where generative AI can and can’t add value in a sector like Defence and Security.

Why AI Isn’t the Answer to Every Data Problem

The nature of AI makes it an attractive proposition for any organisation looking to solve problems where data is a key component. However, AI won’t automatically solve every data problem. Before adopting AI, it’s vital to establish the nature of your problems and the data involved and determine whether AI is actually the right solution.

Crossing The AI Deployment Gap

Despite significant investment, almost 50% of all AI projects never make it to the deployment stage. In this piece, we address this disparity and the challenge of translating AI models that are theoretically performant pre-deployment into operationalised systems that add real value in high-stakes applications like Defence.

Humans vs AI: The Trust Paradox

AI and machines can often perform tasks far more effectively than humans. And yet, we still hold these technologies to a higher standard of trust than we do for each other. This article explores why this is the case and what approach we can take to ensure that humans and AI can work together to solve problems in high-stakes applications like Defence.

Government & Public Sector

The Drone Blockade: Airports Grapple with A Growing Threat

An uninvited buzz of drones in the air is forcing airports worldwide to rethink their approach to security. The implications are serious, impacting everything from airport operational continuity to passenger confidence.

Making AI Explainable, Manageable, and Justified in the UK Public Sector

In 2022, Mind Foundry hosted a webinar called 'Defining Ambitions: The Future of AI in the Public Sector’'. Delivered in partnership with GovNewsDirect, the session's objective was to explore the possibilities for AI innovation within public services and the importance of responsibility in a high-stakes application like this.

Let’s Use AI Responsibly to Discover Where to Place EV Charge Points

As more people switch to electric vehicles, the need for expanded charge point infrastructure is becoming more and more evident. To make this expansion more efficient and socially beneficial, Mind Foundry developed a tool that helps local authorities and charge point operators optimise the locations of their EV infrastructure.

71% Haven’t Read the UK’s Data Strategy. Here’s What They Missed

The UK’s National Data Strategy highlights the growing importance of data in our society and sets out how the Government aims to capitalise on its potential. And yet, the vast majority of respondents to our survey hadn’t read the strategy at all. This article provides a useful summary of the strategy that captures the key information.

AI In Government: Considerations for Ethics and Responsibility

Decisions made by governments and other public sector organisations affect many people's lives in profound ways every day. This article recaps a roundtable discussion about how if considerations for ethics and responsibility are not made during the designing, building, and implementing a solution with AI, unintended and unanticipated far-reaching consequences may arise.  

Mind Foundry and Our People

Women in Defence & National Security

Today, women are significantly underrepresented in Defence & National Security. This piece shares insights from some of the women at Mind Foundry about the challenges they've faced, their advice to others, and why correcting this imbalance can help us drive success.

Celebrating International Women in Engineering Day

To celebrate National Women in Engineering Day, this piece shares the stories of two of our own trailblazers of AI innovation who have been defying stereotypes, knocking down barriers, and inspiring everyone around them for as long as we can remember.

Academia to Industry: Going from Theory to Practice

We interviewed members of the Mind Foundry, Google and Oxa teams to understand their experience of transitioning from academia to industry, sharing their motivations, challenges, and the advice they would give to those making or considering a similar move. 

International Day of Women and Girls in Science

To celebrate International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we proudly showcase some of the extraordinary women at Mind Foundry who are making significant contributions to science and technology as they share their journeys and advice they would give others.

How Mind Foundry’s Goals Framework Led to Outstanding Achievements

This piece shares the stories of three members of the Mind Foundry team and how they used our SMART Goals framework to take on some exciting and inspiring challenges outside of work.
  

Mind Foundry Named in ‘Ethical AI Startup Landscape’ by EAIGG

In 2022, Mind Foundry was included in the ‘Ethical AI Startup Landscape’, mapped by researchers at the EAIGG (Ethical AI Governance Group). This research by the EAIGG was conducted to provide transparency on the ecosystem of companies working on ethical AI and shows Mind Foundry’s commitment to setting an example of how to adopt AI not just successfully but responsibly as well.

Mind Foundry Wins CogX Explainable AI Award for 2022

Mind Foundry is extremely proud to be named the winner of a prestigious CogX award in the “Best Innovation in Explainable AI” category for 2022. AI has long been marketed as something too complex for humans to understand. Mind Foundry is changing this mindset and developing AI solutions for high-stakes applications that everyone can understand and engage with, regardless of their technical knowledge.