The Government has announced that the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (“DSIT”) will expand to bring in experts in data, digital and AI from the Government Digital Service, Central Digital and Data Office, and the Incubator for AI. It is part of what it is described as “wider efforts to launch DSIT as the digital centre of government, working closely with the Cabinet Office and the Treasury, to maximise the potential of digital, data and technology to deliver for the British public.”

The press release goes on to explain that DSIT will support government departments to use technology “across areas like energy, health, policing, and education. It will help to upskill civil servants so they are better at using digital and AI in their frontline work, as well as ensure the government has the right infrastructure and regulation to become more digital.”

The announcement comes at a time when the subject of the use of Artificial Intelligence to improve the efficiency and delivery of public services has attracted significant attention. Earlier this year, the National Audit Office published a report evaluating how effectively the previous government had set itself up to “maximise the opportunities and mitigate the risks of AI in providing public services”, and shortly thereafter a framework was published by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority setting out how AI will be used to make the delivery of public projects more efficient and solve major challenges.

Continuing this trend, last week, the Tony Blair Institute (“TBI”) held its ‘Future of Britain Conference’ on the subject of governing in the age of AI. It was accompanied by a report, ‘Governing in the Age of AI: A New Model to Transform the State’ which argued that, in order to take advantage of existing technologies and digital infrastructure, the new Government will need “a coordinated strategy to put in place the necessary infrastructure, sovereign capability and skills. It will need to invest in making the right data across departments interoperable, while maintaining privacy. It will need to train its own models where necessary, such as for national-security purposes, fine-tune custom tools and build or procure applications on top of existing models. It will need to secure the computing power necessary for AI to run at scale, for everyday use as well as research purposes. And it will need to change how it hires and trains AI specialists.” The TBI also published a report which claimed that the workforce of the Department for Work and Pensions “could free up as much as 40 per cent of its time using AI tools. This is equivalent to a productivity gain of close to £1 billion a year”.

By way of an example of how AI is already being used in practice, the Government Actuary’s Department issued a press release last week explaining how it had used Chat GPT to categorise and analyse responses for a consultation issued by a central governmental department. The output was then collated into 40 summarised responses from which the Department was able to draw out key themes and collate replies.

Returning to the announcement by DIST, the new Secretary of State, Peter Kyle, said that “Britain will not fully benefit from the social and economic potential of science and technology without government leading by example. So, DSIT is to become the centre for digital expertise and delivery in government, improving how the government and public services interact with citizens. We will act as a leader and partner across government, with industry and the research communities, to boost Britain’s economic performance and power up our public services to improve the lives and life chances of people through the application of science and technology.”

To read the press release from DSIT, click here