Cabinet Office trials AI chatbot for civil service

Redbox Copilot moves to beta testing

A generative AI tool to search, analyse and summarise government briefing papers has moved a step closer to reality.

Redbox Copilot, named for the red briefcases traditionally used to carry official documents, began alpha trials last year in an effort to enhance productivity in government.

The system is designed as a way to leverage AI to search through thousands of documents, interrogate them and summarise them into tailored briefings, similarly to the way tools like ChatGPT and Bard operate. The eventual goal is for every civil servant in the UK to have access.

The documents Redbox Copilot can work with include letters, briefings, minutes and speech transcripts, and the developers are also exploring adding official government announcements and transcripts of proceedings in Parliament.

Senior officials, including Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office Alex Burghart, have been using a beta version of the tool, which is now being expanded to the rest of the Cabinet Office. In addition, the developers have published the tool's source code to encourage collaboration.

Burghart, who is MP for Brentwood and Ongar, has answered questions about the tool in the House of Commons, noting that the publication of a transparency report will be "considered" after the evaluation period.

Burghart said, "We are still in the foothills of this work but are now expanding our trial. Ultimately, because of AI's ability to analyse huge quantities of material, Redbox has the opportunity to provide institutional memory and learning to give us better public services."

Unions have been cautiously welcoming about the use of AI in government, although have been clear that use of the technology to reach higher productivity should also lead to higher pay. They have also warned that lack of training could hold that productivity back.

Lauren Crowley, assistant general secretary of the FDA union, told the BBC, "Civil servants understand the need for the service to constantly evolve. However, the civil service needs a long-term skills strategy to enable members to utilise the benefits of AI - this is vital in order to create any real productivity gains.

"Ninety percent of FDA members surveyed in 2023 had never been consulted about the rollout out of AI and 70% had received no training on AI use in the last two years."