GDS seeks external experts for public sector AI advisory panel

Whitehall’s central digital agency intends to convene a group of up to a dozen advisors to help provide scrutiny to AI strategies and the development of new tools and services

The Government Digital Service is inviting experts from outside government to apply to join a new advisory body to help guide the unit on the responsible use of artificial intelligence.

The Responsible AI Advisory Panel will be comprised of 8 to 12 appointees, who will attend meetings once a quarter – with the first of these pencilled in for October. The gatherings will also be attended by the minister for AI and digital government Feryal Clark, and government’s director general of digital centre design Emily Middleton.

The role of the panel will be to “advise and guide how GDS… approaches the development of AI across government”, according to a newly published blog written by Ben Kelly, a senior policy advisor at GDS, which is based in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to shape government’s approach to developing responsible AI for the public good across the public sector, ensuring that government seizes the benefits of AI whilst minimising potential risks,” Kelly added. “It’s crucial to bring together the best AI expertise to help the UK ensure that it develops AI safely, ethically and responsibly across the public sector. The panel will provide expert strategic advice to senior officials and ministers on the responsible use of AI across the UK public sector. The panel will inform GDS on best practice, and provide constructive challenge and scrutiny on government’s approach.”

DSIT guidance published on GOV.UK indicates that duties performed by the panel will be include “providing technical and cross-disciplinary expertise relevant to the responsible development of AI”, as well as “scrutinising individual AI products across government, and providing advice on how these products can best be responsibly delivered”.

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Members will further be tasked with “ensuring that the work of GDS is appropriately informed by the latest evidence, standards and best practice across the AI sector”, and will also be expected to help in “shaping the work programme of the panel to ensure that it best delivers on its objective of providing the best possible advice to GDS”.

The digital unit wants to fill the advisory body with people in possession of “leading expertise” in one or more of a variety of specified areas, including: “data ethics, AI ethics or responsible innovation; AI and data science, from a commercial, academic or civil society perspective; tech policy and regulation; international perspectives of AI use; [and] workforce impacts of AI”, according to the DSIT guidance.

Applications for a role on the panel are open until midday on 18 August. GDS intends to convene “a panel with a genuine diversity of skillset and organisational background, who can provide a wide range of perspectives on responsible AI”, Kelly wrote in his blog.

“AI is transforming how government serves the public,” he said. “From helping NHS staff diagnose conditions faster to streamlining administrative processes that free up civil servants to focus on frontline delivery, AI is already making a real difference to people’s lives.”

The blog added: “To succeed, the UK must adopt AI in a trustworthy way, building transparency, responsibility and accountability into everything we do.”