Government is using AI

The Government Actuaries Department has declared it is using artificial intelligence to help government departments process consultation responses. In a recent news story, they said:

“We are using artificial intelligence (AI) to help clients in government departments process responses to consultations.

“This development helps public sector clients analyse responses which are submitted by people in industry and from the public. We have helped clients from government departments across the UK.

“Categorise and analyse

Recently the Government Actuary’s Department (GAD) used AI software to help categorise and analyse almost 120 responses for a consultation issued by a central government department. In all we processed close to half a million words through either the use of AI or reading responses.

We had to consider how best to use AI to produce an initial summary of the responses that were received. For example, we grouped respondents by industry type so that the AI could pick out themes within these groups.

We used the AI program ChatGPT to summarise the largest consultation responses (about 50 out of the number received). The team fed in all these responses for each question and instructed the AI program to summarise views in 1 to 2 paragraphs. The output was read by an actuary to ensure it reflected a technically correct summary.

“Themes and replies

The output was then collated into 40 summarised responses (one per question) from which we were able to draw out key themes and collate replies.

Actuary Laura Brunton worked on the project and said:

“While we read all the responses, the AI output was a really useful starting point to analyse the responses to make sure the output was coherently presented. We undertook further editing and were able to ensure that the AI created an initial summarised view which we could use to build in the views of all respondents.”

Is this a slippery slope or progress? It is worth noting that in future government may be tempted to use AI on a more widespread basis especially if it cuts down on the cost of producing reports and consultations.