The limits of human bandwidth

Whitehall chief: ‘For the first time in history, public service is no longer constrained by the limits of human bandwidth’

After 172 years in operation, the civil service is at a point where it needs to ‘reimagined arguably in the most fundamental way since its formation’, according to Antonia Romeo...

“AI presents us with the defining opportunities and challenges of this generation, and therefore also for the state,” she said. “The sheer scale of that change is difficult to fathom: AI’s capabilities continue to improve at an exponential rate. But what is clear is that, from policymaking to direct service delivery, the use of AI will radically rewrite all of the domains in which the civil service operates. The traditional model of the state administering siloed services to the public is no longer sufficient. We are now delivering services to a public with tech-enabled tools and capabilities unimaginable to previous generations.”

Whatever 'the limits of human bandwidth' are supposed to be, other than a chilly and unconvincing digital analogy, we are certain to have problems with government enthusiasm for AI. 

More and more aspects of daily life will be sucked into the Machine and the obvious consequence seems inevitable - the limits of citizen bandwidth will be reduced.

But we already know that.

Current and future civil servants were advised that “jobs will change”.

But, while “there are obvious areas where AI can help automate tasks.. [and] we need to equip civil servants with the most relevant frontier models for their work”, Romeo stressed that “AI won’t replace the need for human creativity, interaction, or decision making”.