Public services in the age of AI: a workshop for designers who want to avoid ethical nightmares!

Session type:

Workshop

Presented by:

Jasmine Kendall

Oxford Insights

Kate Iida

Oxford Insights

Sulamaan Rahim

Oxford Insights

Session time:

21 Sep 11:00 — 12:30

Session duration:

90 minutes

About the session

With AI in government already a reality, our role is to make sure it’s used responsibly, ethically, and in the right places.

There are lots of frameworks which outline the principles of ethical AI, but these are often theoretical, leaving designers without practical lessons which they can apply to their own work.

In this session, we will work through actionable principles for designing and implementing AI in government in an ethical way, using a hands-on, scenario-based approach.

Participant Takeaways:

AI in government is here to stay, and it's important to have practical tools to ensure that when it is used in public services, it is used ethically and in the right scenarios.
Before considering using an AI system in public services, design teams must first determine whether its benefits are proportionate to its risks and all of the ways that different groups of people will be impacted.
Service designers must always ensure that there are ways to give the power to challenge the decisions or choices an AI system makes to the people who will be affected by those choices.
Going forward, service designers have an important role to play in holding teams accountable for designing ethics into systems that use AI.

Following the workshop, participants will have access to an online resource outlining the kinds of techniques that can be used by service teams to help decide whether using AI is an ethical decision under the circumstances, and to help guide their work if they choose to move forward with using AI.

This session includes:

Interaction
Has a session number cap: 50 participants

Themes:
Innovation, metrics, data, ROI, AI, ethics, public services, practical.

About the speaker(s)

Jasmine Kendall

Jasmine is a consultant at Oxford Insights, a UK -based consultancy which works with governments and international organisations to harness technology for public good. Jasmine has worked with governments in the UK and internationally helping to design public services and solve complex problems through user research and business analysis.

Her experience ranges from investigating procurement practices during the COVID-19 pandemic, to scoping out a new data governance model for the agri-food sector, and conducting research to support the UK government's provision of services for nationals abroad.

She is especially interested in work which connects governments with voices across civil society, particularly if those voices are underrepresented.

Pronouns: She/Her

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Kate Iida

Kate is a consultant at Oxford Insights, a UK-based consultancy which works with governments and international organisations to harness technology and artificial intelligence for public good.

Kate has worked on projects with the UK government and has conducted research for Oxford Insights AI Readiness Index, which evaluates the extent to which governments around the world are prepared to use AI in a responsible manner in their public services.

Her experience ranges from evaluating the extent to which public services in the UK and internationally are human centred in their design, developing a pilot project for Colombia’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies to help actors in the country’s agricultural sector share data to mitigate the risks caused by climate change, and in developing policy recommendations to support the UK’s public and private sector to build greater trust in data.

Pronouns: She/Her

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Sulamaan Rahim

Sulamaan is a Partnerships Associate at Oxford Insights, a UK-based consultancy that looks to harness technology for public good.

He contributed to the 2022 Government AI Readiness Index, which looks at how well-placed governments around the world are to implement AI in public services in general, and the forthcoming Responsible AI Index, which investigates how they can do it responsibly.

He has a keen interest in data ethics and conducted research on the potential impacts of EU and UK legislation on the deployment of EU AI initiatives. He is particularly interested in the way that the government can harness data to provide more effective and efficient public services while also foregrounding citizens’ rights to privacy.

Pronouns: He/Him