Exclusive insight on how one UK department is using AI, unleashing the power of data in government, and more
Welcome to this month’s AI Monitor. In this edition, we summarise the AI strategies being developed and deployed by each of the Five Eyes nations and share an interesting example of AI in action in a UK government department, as well as rounding up what was in the recent King’s Speech and more.
Thanks for reading and please get in touch to share your thoughts and news on AI developments in government.
Jack Aldane
Senior staff writer
Global Government Forum
In this edition:
- AI strategies across the Five Eyes nations
- Exclusive insight on how the UK Government Actuary’s Department is using AI
- Australian secretaries agree AI safety policy for government
- Upcoming AI webinars and GGF training
- Unleashing the power of data in government
- AI in the King’s Speech
AI strategies across the Five Eyes nations
Countries around the world are working to develop plans to capitalise on the benefits of AI while mitigating the risks.
Global Government Forum has rounded up the national AI strategies of the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand – the countries collectively known as the Five Eyes due to their close alliance rooted in intelligence sharing – to show where they cover common ground and where they diverge from each other.
UK’s AI ambition: The UK government’s National AI Strategy sets out a 10-year plan to strengthen investment in innovation and secure public trust in how AI is used. The UK also established an AI Council to provide expert advice to the government and the council has published an AI Roadmap, which consists of 16 recommendations.
US approach: The US federal government’s National AI R&D Strategic Plan defines “the major research challenges in AI to coordinate and focus federal R&D investments”. The aim of the plan, which incorporates nine strategies related to various elements of AI, is to cement America’s leadership in the “development and use of trustworthy AI systems” and “prepare the current and future US workforce for the integration of AI systems across all sectors and coordinate ongoing AI activities across all federal agencies”.
In October 2023, President Biden issued an executive order on the safe, secure, and trustworthy development and use of artificial intelligence, which was followed by a policy published by the Office of Management and Budget to guide how federal agencies use AI, covering both risks and opportunities.
Canada’s AI journey: Canada can boast being the first country in the world to publish a National AI strategy, which it launched in 2017.
The Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence Strategy consists of three pillars: commercialisation, standards of practice, and talent and research.
Canada is now in the process of developing an AI strategy to “accelerate responsible AI adoption by the government to enhance productivity, increase the government’s capacity for science and research, and deliver simpler and faster digital services for Canadians and businesses”.
Australia’s action on AI: In 2021, the Australian government described its “vision” to establish Australia as “a global leader in developing and adopting trusted, secure and responsible AI”.
The action plan to achieve this consists of four focus areas: developing and adopting AI to transform Australian businesses; creating an environment to grow and attract the world’s best AI talent; using cutting-edge AI technologies to solve Australia’s national challenges; and making Australia a global leader in responsible and inclusive AI.
Earlier this month, Australian government secretaries signed off an AI policy for the safe and responsible use of the technology in government. (See below for more details).
New Zealand’s plan: New Zealand’s latest Action Plan for the Digital Strategy for Aotearoa (the Māori-language name for New Zealand) was published in September 2022. The potential impact of AI in government is framed around the need for a “trustworthy and ethical data ecosystem”.
Like others, the government expresses its ambition to make New Zealand “a leading global voice in data governance” that promotes trust and addresses risks to privacy, though adds a national flavour of unique “Te Ao Māori perspectives” in the process of supporting “networking and coordination across industry, research bodies and the wider community”.
Read the in-depth analysis of how each of the Five Eyes countries are approaching AI
Exclusive insight on how the UK Government Actuary’s department is using AI
The UK Government Actuary’s Department has begun using AI to process consultation feedback.
What does the department do? The Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) provides non-profit actuarial (insurance risk calculation) solutions for the government and wider public sector. Its areas of expertise include “risk analysis, modelling, quality assurance and advice about a large and complex range of client projects”, according to its webpage.
How is it applying AI to its services? GAD said that it had used AI software to “categorise and analyse almost 120 responses for a consultation issued by a central government department”, and that in total, the department had processed “close to half a million words” both through AI and by reading responses. Alongside this categorisation exercise, large consultation responses were summarised using the Large Language Model ChatGPT. According to GAD, these responses were then fed in for each question and used to instruct the AI programme to summarise views in “one to two paragraphs”.
The benefits: Providing details to GGF, the department said this initial pilot project had been able to effectively draw out common themes in the responses quicker than reading them. This use of AI allowed the GAD to reduce costs while focusing more resources on delivering high-quality work, thereby increasing efficiency and achieving better value for money for taxpayers, a spokesperson told GGF.
How it works: “The AI processes the content of the notes and then presents the described calculations in the form of Python code. Once completed an analyst or actuary subsequently reviews the results to ensure they are fit for purpose,” the GAD said. “Whenever we use AI in our work, we always ensure that there is a ‘human in the loop’ involved in checking the appropriateness of the AI output. We also have various governance procedures in place to prevent people from sharing sensitive information with AI tools in a way that would make it accessible outside of our organisation, and to ensure that AI is used appropriately and judiciously.”
More to come? The GAD said the successful pilot exercise meant that the future use of AI for consultation responses would now be considered on a case-by-case basis. “Subject to these controls we are continuing to explore different potential uses of AI in all aspects of our work in order to add value for the taxpayer and support better outcomes.”
Australian secretaries agree AI safety policy for government
Australian government secretaries have signed off an AI policy for the safe and responsible use of the technology in government
The policy: The federal AI policy is due to come into force in September this year and will apply to all non‑corporate commonwealth bodies. Responsible for implementing the policy is the Digital Transformation Agency (DTA), which will also oversee governance arrangements around adoption of AI tools by departments and agencies.
Consultation response: In January this year, the Australian government published its interim response to the safe and responsible AI consultation held in 2023.
The interim response outlined what the government had learned about safe and responsible AI from academia, businesses and the Australian public. It also detailed how the government “is [taking] and will take action now and in the longer term” on these issues.
Composition of the feedback: The consultation received more than 500 submissions. More than a fifth of those were from individual citizens motivated to provide their input on safe and responsible AI. The government also heard from “345 virtual town hall attendees” and over “200 roundtable attendees” over the course of the consultation.
The key takeaways: The government said that the consultation “made it clear that AI systems and applications are helping to improve wellbeing and quality of life”, as well as “growing [Australia’s] economy”. However, it added that current regulatory frameworks “do not fully address the risks of AI” and that the submissions called for “further guardrails on legitimate but high-risk uses of AI, as well as unforeseen risks from powerful ‘frontier’ models”.
Upcoming AI webinars and GGF training
How artificial intelligence can empower the civil service
18 September 2024
This interactive workshop is designed to introduce civil service professionals to the world of artificial intelligence. The seminar will cover fundamental concepts of AI, its applications in the public sector, ethical considerations, and practical tools. It aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of AI, especially for those new to the field, and explore its potential in enhancing government services.
How government can make the most of analytics and AI
10 October
This webinar will bring together public servants to share insight on how government can use the data it collects to better deliver for people, and also examine how governments can use artificial intelligence to optimise digital services and experiences.
Register now
Unleashing the power of data in government
Earlier this month, Global Government Forum attended an eventlooking at how government can make the most of the power of data.
The event, hosted by the social enterprise Policy in Practice in the heart of Whitehall, brought together government and data experts at the intersection of the private and public sectors on data and AI.
Enough AI mania? Gus Tugendhat, founder of public sector insights platform Tussell, spoke on the need for scepticism in a time of hype around AI.
“The smartest people I listen to talking about [AI] are extolling the benefits of the technology, for sure, but they are also talking about the data [and] the importance of having clean data to deploy the AI on, and I think that gets less talked about in all of this,” he said.
Is Tussell at the bleeding edge of this new technology? Tugendhat told his audience emphatically: “No.” However, he added that: “The more that AI becomes embedded in our personal and our business lives, the more of a premium that puts on clean, useful data to feed it.”
“That speaks to the perennial value of data in a very fast-changing information world.”
An end to humdrum paperwork: Paul Maltby, ex-chief digital officer at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, said that the benefits of using AI in government were arguably clearest at the level of everyday repetitive work.
He described engineers in the private sector who, like civil servants, “love their jobs” but “hate filling in forms”. He said if engineers are currently able to use AI-powered transcription services to record themselves “explain[ing] what it is that they’re doing in their own terms” before feeding that report into an automated form-filling processor, public servants will almost certainly be able to do the same.
Maltby, who is now director of public services at AI firm Faculty, said: “Our public services are creaking right at the seams. I think [governments should follow] those types of examples…whether it’s generative AI or just traditional AI [that do] those basic admin processes…given the status of the finances and the outputs.”
No more self-deprecation: He said that governments could no longer afford to indulge senior leaders’ self-deprecating deferment when it comes to digital skills, including basic skills in AI.
“Senior leaders wouldn’t say ‘I have no idea how to write, or how money works’, yet [they] say that sort of stuff all the time [about data], and everyone just sort of nods along,” Maltby said.
“Often when you’ve been working around public services, it’s not the technical people, the digital people, that are the barrier to making progress. It’s a lack of understanding or a feeling of comfort with these things. Perhaps folks who’ve been around senior leadership positions for a while don’t really understand it, feel a bit threatened by it, don’t sort of get what it’s got to do with what they’re up to.”
AI in the King’s Speech
On 17 July, the British monarch King Charles III delivered a speech setting out the legislative priorities of the prime minister Keir Starmer’s newly elected Labour government, following the latest UK General Election on 4 July.
Update on AI: Hundreds of lawmakers and members of the House of Lords were in attendance to hear the speech firsthand. Despite the hype around AI, the technology did not feature heavily in the speech. It did get a look-in, however, when the King mentioned Labour’s plan to legislate for strong workers’ rights and protections against exploitative work practices.
Bill incoming: “My government is committed to making work pay and will legislate to introduce a new deal for working people to ban exploitative practices and enhance employment rights,” he said. “It will seek to establish the appropriate legislation to place requirements on those working to develop the most powerful artificial intelligence models.”
39 bills: The King’s Speech set out plans for as many as 39 bills, including measures to expand the powers of a major fiscal watchdog and nationalise the operation of the railways.
Read more about what was announced in the King’s Speech
Thanks for reading this newsletter and keep an eye out for next month’s edition.
About Jack Aldane
Jack is a British journalist, cartoonist and podcaster. He graduated from Heythrop College London in 2009 with a BA in philosophy, before living and working in China for three years as a freelance reporter. After training in financial journalism at City University from 2013 to 2014, Jack worked at Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters before moving into editing magazines on global trade and development finance. Shortly after editing opinion writing for UnHerd, he joined the independent think tank ResPublica, where he led a media campaign to change the health and safety requirements around asbestos in UK public buildings. As host and producer of The Booking Club podcast – a conversation series featuring prominent authors and commentators at their favourite restaurants – Jack continues to engage today’s most distinguished thinkers on the biggest problems pertaining to ideology and power in the 21st century. He joined Global Government Forum as its Senior Staff Writer and Community Co-ordinator in 2021.
Related Posts
