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Daniel Hulme (born 21 February 1980) is a British businessman, investor, academic and commentator, working in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), applied technology and ethics. He is the CEO and founder of Satalia that exited to WPP plc in 2021 where he is also Chief AI Officer. Hulme is also an angel investor in emerging technology companies. In 2024 Daniel co-founded Conscium, which is the world's first commercial AI research lab dedicated to the understanding of conscious AI and its implications for developing safe, efficient neuromorphic technologies that behave more like a biological brains.

Hulme founded Satalia in 2007, a company that provides AI products and consultancy for governments and companies such as Tesco, PwC and the BBC. He received a doctorate in AI from University College London (UCL), and is now their Computer Science Entrepreneur in residence, where he teaches how AI can be applied to solve business and social problems. After exiting Satalia to WPP plc Hulme took the dual role of Chief AI Officer at WPP where he is responsible for informing and coordinating AI across the group. Hulme is an angel investor and also a frequent public speaker and writer on the topics of AI, ethics, technology, innovation, decentralization and organisational design. Daniel was recognized by AI Magazine in 2023 as one of the Top 10 Chief AI Officer's globally.

Early life and education

Hulme was born in 1980. He grew up in the seaside town of Morecambe in north west England. After completing secondary school Hulme moved to London to study at University College London. On completing his under graduate degree, Hulme stayed at UCL to complete a master's degree and then a EngD. All three degrees were in subjects related to AI. In 2009 Hulme was awarded a Kauffman Global Entrepreneur Scholarship, which saw him visit institutes in the United States to better understand their culture of innovation, and what UK business people could learn from it. This included a tour of Stanford, MIT, Berkeley and Harvard, along with a placement at Cisco Systems HQ in Silicon Valley.

Career

Satalia

Hulme founded NPComplete Limited in 2007, and incorporated it in 2008, a few months before completing his PhD. NPComplete Limited trades as Satalia. The London-based company provides full-stack AI consultancy and products, helping organisations harness data science, machine learning and AI to solve complex problems, including real-time optimisation. NPComplete refers to mathematical NP-completeness, which describes a class of exponential problems in the field of computational complexity theory. The trading name of NPComplete, Satalia, is intended as a portmanteau of SAT (Short for satisfiability, as in the Boolean satisfiability problem) and the Latin phrase Et alia. Satalia seeks to solve hard problems, in particular the class of exponentially hard problems found in academia and industry known as NP-hardness. While much of Satalia's focus in on helping firms cut costs and increase revenue, Hulme has stated the firm also has a higher vision. Which is to help anyone, from any part of the world, to contribute to innovations, and "enable everyone to live beyond themselves", even if this is not the reality within Satalia itself. In 2016, Satalia was the only UK company to appear in the Gartner Cool Vendors list for data science. In November 2019, City A.M. reported that Satalia was the 39th fastest growing tech firm in the UK, with three year growth at 886%. Satalia was acquired by WPP plc in August 2021 for a rumored $100,000,000, where Hulme was the majority shareholder.

WPP plc

After exiting Satalia to WPP plc Hulme took the dual role of Chief AI Officer at WPP where he is responsible for informing and coordinating AI across the group. Whilst Hulme still continues his roles as CEO of Satalia, as part of the acquisition he was appointed as WPP's Chief AI Officer and was recognized by AI Magazine in 2023 as one of the Top 10 Chief AI Officer's globally.

Conscium

Conscium is an AI research lab dedicated to the understanding of conscious AI and its implications for developing safe, efficient neuromorphic models. Neuromorphic computing are technologies that can processes information more like a biological brain compared to than existing approaches, making them far more adaptive, scalable and efficient than current AI. Today’s AIs development is restricted by lack of transparency, require enormous amounts of lack of sustainability due to significant power, and are consumption and susceptibility to data bias. They also suffers from static neural architectures and a failure to investigate machine consciousness – the potential implications of which could be catastrophic. Conscium is addressing these problems in three ways: 1) by researching machine consciousness, 2) by pioneering brain-like neuromorphic computing, and 3) by creating better evaluation environments for AI agents.

Academia

Hulme's master's degree topic was on simulating artificial life with Artificial Neural Networks. His PhD spanned modelling bumblebee brains and mathematical optimization. Hulme maintained his connection with UCL after completing his doctorate, staying on in various teaching positions. From 2014 to Oct 2019 he was the Director of UCL's Business analytics MSc, which dealt with the application of AI to government, social, and business problems. As of 2020, Hulme is UCL's Entrepreneur In Residence. He is also a faculty member and lecturer at Singularity University, and a visiting lecturer at London School of Economics's Marshall Institute.

Public engagement

Hulme frequently speaks for TEDx, Google and at various other events. He specialises in Artificial Intelligence, Decentralization, Organisational Design, and Innovation. He has written numerous articles and contributed to several books, largely concerning AI, as well as applied technology and related ethical issues. In 2017, along with Elon Musk, Stuart J. Russell, Geoffrey Hinton and Demis Hassabis, Hulme was one of the 116 founders of robotics and AI companies to sign an open letter to the United Nations, warning against the use of AI in autonomous weapons. Hulme also consults with various companies, governments and other organisations, independently of Satalia.

References

1. ^ "CxO of the Week: Daniel Hulme, CEO of Satalia". www.em360tech.com. 26 June 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
2. Amber Jackson (23 July 2023). "WPP acquires top AI tech firm Satalia as advertising giant ramps up digital strategy". AI Magazine. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
3. ^ Euan Cameron; Deborah Unger (December 2018). "Understanding the Potential of Artificial Intelligence". Strategy+Business. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
4. ^ "UCL DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE: DR. DANIEL J HULME". University College London. May 2020. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
5. Thomas Macaulay (8 October 2019). "Satalia CEO Daniel Hulme has a plan to overcome the limitations of machine learning". Techworld. Archived from the original on 7 April 2020. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
6. "Naming Satalia: What does Satalia mean?". Satalia. 4 January 2017. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
7. Andrew Burgess (2017). "8". The Executive Guide to Artificial Intelligence. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 144–146. ISBN 978-3-319-63819-5.
8. "Algorithm for the masses". raconteur.net. 4 October 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
9. Anna Menin (8 November 2019). "Revealed: The 50 fastest growing tech companies in the UK". City A.M. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
10. Naomi Ackerman (23 August 2021). "WPP acquires top AI tech firm Satalia as advertising giant ramps up digital strategy". Evening Standard. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
11. Amber Jackson (23 July 2023). "WPP acquires top AI tech firm Satalia as advertising giant ramps up digital strategy". AI Magazine. Retrieved 4 September 2023.
12. "LSE People". London School of Economics. May 2020. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
13. "Dr. Daniel Hulme, Faculty". Singularity University. May 2020. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
14. Calum Chace; Daniel Hulme (2016). Stories from 2045. Three Cs. ISBN 978-0-9932116-4-5.
15. Chris Pash (21 Aug 2017). "The world's top artificial intelligence companies are pleading for a ban on killer robots". Business Insider. Retrieved 3 May 2020.

External links

• Satalia home page

• 1980 births
• Living people
• Machine learning researchers
• Artificial intelligence ethicists
• British artificial intelligence researchers
• Alumni of University College London