Civil Servants: Artificial Intelligence

(asked on 13th June 2025) - View Source

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether civil servants receive (a) training and (b) guidance on managing the risks of non-deterministic outputs in AI-assisted decision-making.


Answered by
Feryal Clark Portrait
Feryal Clark
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
This question was answered on 23rd June 2025

DSIT has provided civil servants with both training and guidance on managing the risks of AI, including non-deterministic models such as LLMs. Training includes over 70 free courses on AI fundamentals, ethics, machine learning and generative AI, available through Civil Service Learning and the Government Campus. These emphasise critical evaluation of AI outputs and awareness of risks like bias and hallucination. The AI Playbook for the UK Government outlines principles for managing risks, accuracy, bias, hallucinations, and security threats. Civil servants are advised to apply human oversight and robust testing to ensure responsible use of AI and always adhere to the Model of Responsible Innovation.

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