The two main fears about artificial intelligence are that the data these systems produce will be crap and that people who don’t make such mistakes will be unfairly deprived of their jobs. However The current UK government is actively promoting the use of artificial intelligence to do the work normally done by civil servants, including preparing answers to parliamentary inquiries; the Financial Times reports.
UK Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden It is set to introduce a “red box” tool that can absorb and aggregate information from authoritative sources such as the Parliamentary Record. A separate tool is also being tested, which should work in the same way but provide individualized responses to public consultations. While it’s unclear how quickly the AI tool can do the job, Dowden claims it will take three months with 25 civil servants. However, drafts will always be double-checked by a human and include a source.
The Telegraph Dowden was quoted as saying that the introduction of artificial intelligence technology is critical to reducing civil service jobs — something he wants to do. “I think if we want to go on a sustainable path to downsizing, that’s really the only way. Remember how much the size of the Civil Service has grown as a result of the pandemic and preparing to leave the EU. We need to really get the numbers down.” to accept this thing.” Dowden’s statement coincides with his boss, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s hopes to use technology to improve government productivity – surprisingly, neither has suggested saving money by giving jobs to artificial intelligence.
Dowden expresses some reservations about having AI do everything. In a briefing before the speech, he said the government would not use AI for any “new or controversial or politically sensitive areas”. At the same time, the Cabinet Office’s artificial intelligence unit will increase from 30 to 70 and get a new budget of £110 million ($139.1 million), up from £5 million ($6.3 million).
