Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2023 to Question 1948 on Artificial Intelligence: Public Sector, and with reference to her Department's policy paper entitled Introducing the AI Safety Institute, published on 2 November 2023, whether it remains her Department's policy to identify new uses for AI in the public sector.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
As the Department with responsibility for AI policy and strengthening the UK’s capabilities in AI, DSIT will continue to look to identify new uses for AI in the public sector. The work the department started on AI for Good during the summit will support this. We will work with the recently established Incubator for Artificial Intelligence and with departments and public sector organisations leading on identifying use cases in their remit to drive responsible innovation in AI across the public sector.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the Answer of 7 November to Question 333 on Social Media: Antisemitism, if she will publish the written responses of the social media companies.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government agreed to keep written summaries confidential. These summaries contain commercially sensitive information, as well as information about special measures put in place to tackle content related to the conflict, which could be exploited by bad actors if published.
However, the Government has been clear with platforms that they should be adequately protecting their users. The Government is in regular contact with platforms as part of the process of closely monitoring their responses. The Government also convened social media platforms and community groups to facilitate direct feedback about the impact of this content.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, pursuant to the Answer of 13 November to Question 334 on Artificial Intelligence: Public Sector, if she will provide a table of all new uses of AI in the public sector her Department has identified as of 14 November 2023; and whether they have been adopted.
Answered by Saqib Bhatti - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Each public sector organisation leads on identifying new uses of AI specific to them, and therefore the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) does not identify and track these. DSIT itself has not adopted or deployed any AI tools, it is working to use technologies such as automation and AI innovatively to improve outcomes and efficiency, but we are in the pilot stage at the moment.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, when she plans to publish a response to the consultation entitled A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation.
Answered by Paul Scully
Government is moving quickly to establish the right guardrails for AI to drive responsible, safe innovation. In March, we published the AI Regulation White Paper which set out our first steps towards establishing a regulatory framework for AI.
We will be publishing our response to the consultation later this year, to ensure we can take into account the outcomes of the productive discussions of the AI Safety Summit held at the beginning of November.
Since publishing the White Paper, we have taken rapid steps to implement our approach. We have established a central AI risk function in DSIT which will ensure that we can identify, measure and monitor existing and emerging AI risks. We also announced the world’s first AI Safety Institute which will carefully examine, test and evaluate new types of AI. This builds on our investment of £100 million in the Frontier AI Taskforce – more funding for AI safety than any other country in the world.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the Answer of 19 October 2023 to Question 202862 on Companies: Social Media, how many of the social media companies in question have provided written responses confirming the steps they are taking to tackle extremely violent and anti-Semitic content.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government held a roundtable with social companies including YouTube, Meta, X, TikTok and Snapchat on 11 October to discuss the ongoing conflict in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
During this meeting, companies were asked to follow-up in writing to confirm the steps they are taking to tackle extremely violent and antisemitic content. These companies have all since followed up in writing. The Government continues to engage directly with individual companies and will keep the current approach under review.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps her Department is taking to identify new uses for AI in the public sector.
Answered by Paul Scully
The UK government is taking a leading role promoting ethical, safe and responsible adoption of AI, as illustrated by our leadership of the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park last week. This includes the use of AI to improve public services and boost public sector productivity.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is looking to identify new uses for AI in the public sector. Examples include: the AI Life Sciences Accelerator Mission giving £100 million of funding to capitalise on AI’s game-changing potential in healthcare; the Department for Education providing up to £2million to Oak National Academy to improve and expand Artificial Intelligence tools for teachers; the Department of Health and Social Care using AI to identify language indicating mental distress in public social media posts and signposting people to a NHS-endorsed mental health service; and the Royal Navy using AI to connect with potential recruits faster through an AI-driven virtual recruiter.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many artificial intelligence researchers work in her Department.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Department currently has 14 researchers as part of the Frontier AI Taskforce but intends increase that number. The Frontier AI Taskforce was launched by the Prime Minister in June to build an AI research team inside government that can evaluate risk at the frontier of AI.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether she has received written responses from all the social media companies she met on 11 October 2023.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Government is continuing to work closely with social media companies to understand the policies and processes they have in place to prevent harmful and illegal content from being dispersed online, and their crisis management response.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is engaging with individual companies and will be keeping the approach under continual review.