UK government trials AI to streamline civil service operations, report

The initiative involves using AI tools to undertake tasks traditionally performed by civil servants

The UK government is testing AI systems in a move aimed at enhancing efficiency and productivity within the civil service.

Spearheaded by deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden, the initiative involves using AI tools, including government-hosted versions of ChatGPT and proprietary models housed within government premises.

The government hopes these tools will eventually undertake tasks traditionally performed by civil servants, such as analysing responses to government consultations and drafting preliminary responses to parliamentary inquiries.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak has previously revealed intentions to use technology to enhance government productivity, particularly in light of constrained public finances and political choices that restrict ministers' capacity to enhance public services through increased funding.

As reported by the Financial Times, the so-called "red box" AI tool can extract and condense information from reliable sources like the parliamentary records or government speeches, thereby expediting ministerial decision-making process.

Another AI instrument currently under trial aims to read and summarise individual responses to public consultations, potentially reducing the time and manpower required for processing such engagements.

Notably, human oversight remains integral, with civil servants tasked to verify and refine the AI-generated drafts. Dowden affirmed that AI will not be used in "novel or contentious or highly politically sensitive areas."

In remarks quoted by The Telegraph, Dowden said AI adoption could achieve a sustainable reduction in civil service headcount.

"It really is the only way, I think, if we want to get on a sustainable path to headcount reduction. Remember how much the size of the Civil Service has grown as a result of the pandemic and, and EU exit preparedness. We need to really embrace this stuff to drive the numbers down," he said.

In recent years, the civil service workforce has experienced significant growth, surging by over 100,000 since 2016 to reach 519,780 individuals last year, according to government figures.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Office's AI division, also known as the "Incubator for AI" or "i. AI", is poised for significant expansion, with plans to increase staff numbers from 30 to 70 and allocate a substantially augmented budget of £110 million. The investment underscores the government's commitment to advancing AI capabilities within the public sector.

The move was supported by right-leaning thinktanks, some with close links to government-favoured AI startups. James Price, director of government relations at the Adam Smith Institute, said "civil service reform will need to go further if we want to cut the Leviathan down to size."

John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, urged government officials to confront bureaucratic inefficiencies directly rather than relying solely on technological innovations.

Laura Gilbert, chief analyst and data science director at Downing Street, lauded the potential of AI to yield efficiencies, citing early tools with returns on investment exceeding expectations. Although there was initially a general target of achieving a 3.55 times return on investment with AI, she noted that some of the early tools are yielding returns closer to 200 times the initial investment.

However, Emily Bender, professor of Computational Linguistics at the University of Washington, described turning over government functions to genAI as a "bad idea" and "magical thinking".

"Either it's a version of ChatGPT OR it's a search system where people can find the actual sources of the information. Both of those things can't be true at the same time," she said in a thread on Mastodon. "They're basically admitting they don't trust it to speak for them (and they shouldn't) but also that they think that some government communication is just so much BS."