Two major concerns surrounding artificial intelligence are that the information produced by these systems is nonsense and that it will unfairly take away the jobs of people who wouldn’t make such sloppy mistakes. But the current British government is actively promoting the use of artificial intelligence to complete tasks usually performed by civil servants, including drafting responses to parliamentary questions, Financial Times Report.
Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden is to launch a “red box” tool that he says will absorb and summarize information from reputable sources such as parliamentary records. A separate instrument is also being trialled, which should work similarly but provide a separate response to the public consultation. While it’s unclear how quickly an AI tool could do the job, Dowden claimed it would take 25 civil servants three months. However, these drafts are said to always be double-checked by humans and sources included.
telegraph Dowden was quoted as saying the implementation of artificial intelligence technology was crucial to cutting jobs in the civil service – something he wanted to do. “I think if we want to get on the path to sustainable redundancies, that’s really the only way to do it. Remember how much the size of the civil service has grown because of the pandemic and preparations for EU exit. We need to really embrace these things. Bring the numbers down.” Dowden’s announcement is in line with his boss, Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s desire to use technology to improve government productivity – which, shockingly, neither man has proposed Save money by letting artificial intelligence do the work.
Dowden did show some restraint in letting artificial intelligence do everything. In a briefing before the speech, he noted that the government would not use artificial intelligence in any “novel, controversial or highly politically sensitive areas.” At the same time, the number of staff in the Cabinet Office’s artificial intelligence unit will increase from 30 to 70, and the new budget will increase from 5 million pounds ($6.3 million) to 110 million pounds ($139.1 million).
