Scottish AI Alliance (SAIA)

Please note that this is a legacy entry reflecting past infrastructure activity and contributions. It is not currently active.

Description

The Scottish AI Alliance was the delivery body for Scotland's first artificial intelligence strategy, running from March 2021 to March 2026 as a strategic partnership between the Scottish Government and The Data Lab. Its work spanned artificial intelligence ethics, inclusion and civic engagement, delivered through public engagement, regional summits, the Scottish AI Playbook, a newsletter and a podcast. Governance ran through a Leadership Circle, a Leadership Group, a Governance Group and a Community Advisory Group, with a staff team drawn from both partner organisations.

Alongside its policy work the Alliance ran a recurring strand on art and creativity in the age of artificial intelligence, supported by Creative Informatics under an Arts and Humanities Research Council grant. This included the Uncanny Machines open call and commission of 2023, run with The New Real at the University of Edinburgh and with the Alan Turing Institute and the British Library, which drew seventy-nine applications from artists worldwide; the resulting exhibition How to Find the Soul of a Sailor; the Creative AI Forum in Glasgow in June 2024; and the closing event AI Can't Write Symphonies and Neither Can You in Glasgow in June 2025. Design students at The Glasgow School of Art built the interactive artefacts used in its People's AI Panel on Climate.

The Alliance concluded in March 2026 at the end of the strategy period. A separate Scottish Government programme at aiscotland.scot now carries a new artificial intelligence strategy for 2026 to 2031, with a narrower focus on business adoption.

The Alliance's other channels were LinkedIn, Bluesky and Threads.

Offers funding

No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

Founding year

2021

Contact details

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Categorisation

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Partner Infrastructures

Alan Turing Institute

The Alan Turing Institute, headquartered in the British Library, London, was created as the national institute for data science in 2015. In 2017, as a result of a government recommendation, artificial… read more about Alan Turing Institute

London

Creative Informatics

Creative Informatics is an ambitious research and development (R&D) programme based in Edinburgh, which aims to bring the city’s world-class creative industries and tech sector together, providi… read more about Creative Informatics

Edinburgh

British Library

Research is central to the British Library's role as the national library of the United Kingdom. It helps the British Library to share their collections and intellectual heritage with people across th… read more about British Library

London

The New Real

The New Real is a research hub for artificial intelligence, creativity and futures, established in 2019 as the public programme of Experiential AI at the University of Edinburgh, where it sits between… read more about The New Real

Edinburgh

Partner Universities

The Glasgow School of Art

University of Edinburgh

Additional Partnerships

Scottish Government; The Data Lab; Children's Parliament