[co-author: Charlotte Ezaz]
On March 12, 2021, United Kingdom’s (UK) Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden announced the UK’s forthcoming National Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy as he set out his Ten Tech Priorities. The Strategy, which is due to be published later this year, will seek to establish the UK as a global centre for the development, commercialisation and adoption of responsible AI.
Focusing on AI appears to be one of the priorities for the UK government. According to the Global AI Index developed by Tortoise Media (reportedly the first index to benchmark nations on their level of investment, innovation and implementation of AI), the UK is ranked third, after the United States and China. In 2020, UK firms that were adopting or creating AI-based technologies received £1.78 billion (approx. US$2.45 billion) in funding, according to the CEO of Tech Nation, a UK-government backed initiative assisting tech companies.
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Or Lenchner outlined the importance of establishing a responsible data collection blueprint at Institute for Government (IfG) Data Bites event
Or Lenchner, CEO of Luminati Networks, a leading online data collection company, called on government agencies and public sector leaders to drive ethical data collection processes at an Institute for Government (IfG) event last week The online event, part of a monthly series that brings together top data experts from across UK Government agencies, was held on 3
rd March.
Lenchner s presentation to the Getting things done with data in Government panel discussion set out three key principles to be bound into all ethical data collection frameworks:
Protection and Privacy Pivotal to the UKâs National Data Strategy
The data protection and privacy issues surrounding the UK’s National Data Strategy were discussed by experts during a session at a recent Westminster eForum policy conference.
However, the panellists emphasized that safeguards around data privacy and protection are essential when implementing this national strategy. Gayle McFarlane, partner, Eversheds Sutherland, said that as a starting point, the objective of the data collection and its appropriateness must be clearly defined and communicated. “We need to think about what the ultimate purpose of it is and how it is going to be used,” she outlined. For example, McFarlane noted that while many would consider it a positive to allow the NHS to gather large amounts of data about people’s activities in order to drive health policies, “if that data is used to say if my smart watch hasn’t collected enough steps today and the
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Summary:
Governments around the world have had to scale up digital services in response to COVID-19, whilst also grappling macro-political challenges.
(Pixabay)
It has undoubtedly been one of the most challenging years in recent history for governments around the globe. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic meant balancing a contentious health and economic crisis, whilst scaling up digital services for citizens in the form of welfare, business support and contact tracing. All the while shifting to a distributed work environment. Not only this, but COVID-19 occurred in a year when there are huge macro-political changes in play - notably the US election and Brexit. Here are our top stories from across the government sector in 2020.