Digital transformation: Artificial intelligence in the public sector – Open Access Government

Former Prime Minister of the UK, David Cameron, once remarked that: I believe the creation of the Government Digital Service is one of the great unsung triumphs of the last Parliament. Today, the role of the Government Digital Service (GDS) as part of the Cabinet Office concerns the digital transformation of government. On the GDSs blog, they sum up what they are all about in their own words. Were a centre of excellence in digital, technology and data, collaborating with departments to help them with their own transformation. We work with them to build platforms, standards, and digital services. (1)Artificial intelligence in the public sector

In A guide to using artificial intelligence in the public sector, we learn that AI could change the way we live and work, for example, several public sector organisations use AI for tasks ranging from fraud detection to answering customer queries successfully today. While it is estimated that AI could contribute 5% of the UKs GDP by 2030, ethical, fairness and safety considerations must be taken into account

The paper also gives a very useful definition of AI, that includes the following: At its core, AI is a research field spanning philosophy, logic, statistics, computer science, mathematics, neuroscience, linguistics, cognitive psychology and economics

AI can be defined as the use of digital technology to create systems capable of performing tasks commonly thought to require intelligence

Machine learning is the most widely-used form of AI, and has contributed to innovations like self-driving cars, speech recognition and machine translation.

One of the many case studies highlighted in the paper concerns the Department for International Development who partnered with Columbia University, the University of Southampton, and the United Nations Population Fund to apply a random forest machine learning algorithm to satellite image and micro-census data. Another is about how the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) uses AI to improve MOT testing.

The paper also draws our attention to the fact that AI can benefit the public sector, such as giving more accurate information, predictions and forecasts that result in better outcomes, more accurate medical diagnoses or automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks to free up the valuable time of frontline staff.

However, with an AI project, you need to consider several factors, including AI ethics and safety the paper urges, such as data quality, fairness, accountability, privacy, explainability and transparency, plus costs. The paper also notes that you need to ensure that your AI system is compliant with GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018), including the points that concern automated decision making.

Automated decisions in this context are decisions made without human intervention, which have legal or similarly significant effects on data subjects. For example, an online decision to award a business grant.

If you want to use automated processes to make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects on individuals you must follow the safeguards laid out in the GDPR and DPA 2018. (3)

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Digital transformation: Artificial intelligence in the public sector - Open Access Government