Government AI chatbot goes live across GOV.UK App
Hundreds of thousands of users of mobile program for accessing a comprehensive range of government services will now also be able to interact with automated system powered by Claude LLM...
Having been launched in July last year, as of this week the app has 563,000 registered users. Those signing into the mobile app via their One Login account will now be able to opt in to use the GOV.UK Chat tool. The AI system is designed to enable citizens “to ask questions in plain language and receive instant, clear and reliable answers drawn from official government information”...
Responses provided by GOV.UK Chat – which GDS recently claimed have demonstrated 90% accuracy in tests – are drawn from data contained in the 80,000 pages of government guidance featured across the 700,000 pages of the wider GOV.UK site, according to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
Suppose we assume that 90% response accuracy is better than the response accuracy of the average Minister, MP or even government 'experts'. Not an outrageous assumption when we consider how often politicians do not respond to questions, preferring instead to respond to questions which were not asked.
The system will give official government responses of course, not necessarily responses people might look for and rely on in the wider world. At least some users are bound to make comparisons such as comparisons with official data and statistics.
It all sets many hares running, one of which could be comparisons with the veracity of politicians and government 'experts'.
We live in interesting times.
4 comments:
Taking Arthur C Clarke’s ‘2001’ as a starting point and given the inherent contradictions found in many government and Civil Service documents, how long will it be before the AI finds itself required to process two conflicting instructions and sets about the equivalent of refusing to open the pod bay doors?
PS - right on cue: https://www.dailymail.com/yourmoney/article-15811519/rogue-ai-deletes-company-database.html
Imagine what would happen if the same happened to HMRC!
Imagine one Government AI chatbot arguing with another Government AI chatbot. No people required, but no reduction in Civil Servants.
The wonders of technology. {sarcasm}
Macheath - yes, it seems inevitable that AI will find contradictions and a lack of clarity all over the place in government material.
I'd be very surprised if AI was let it loose on live code as the Mail piece seems to imply though. Perhaps it wasn't and it was a database copy to use as a trial.
DJ - it's a strange situation, government seems to be morphing itself into something machine-like where it could soon become less obvious what Civil Servants are for.
Post a Comment