DSIT releases Model for Responsible Innovation

The DSIT team will be running free sessions outlining the use of the tool

AI is already providing significant and society-wide benefits, from medical advances to mitigating climate change. There is also massive potential for positive use cases in the transport sector, but despite rapid technological progress, only a limited number of AI use cases have been thoroughly explored and implemented across UK transport modes.

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These efforts have mainly focused on areas such as route optimisation, customer service, and operational efficiency.

The UK needs to capitalise on the huge benefits of these technologies to deliver economic growth and improved public services. The Department for Transport (DfT) understand the potential power of AI in transport and is working on a Transport AI Strategy that will Identify where the rapidly evolving capabilities of AI can be applied to transport.

But – it needs to do it responsibly and efficiently. The Ada Lovelace Institute (Ada) has called for the creation of a national taskforce to support the procurement of AI technology in local government.

It has made the recommendation in a new report on the issue, Spending Wisely, based on its research into how procurement of AI is working in the sector. This is the second report in Ada's Procurement of AI and data-driven systems in local government project.

Obviously the governemt and the UK's research organisation are on the ball, and are working hard to help both the public and the private sector get up to speed with AI.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) are developing an AI-enabled chatbot to assist project delivery experts by providing advice, ideas and support based on departmental best practice documents.

The Responsible Technology Adoption Unit (RTA), part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and formerly the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI), has released its Model for Responsible Innovation.

This is a practical tool designed to help teams across the public sector and beyond to innovate responsibly with data and AI.

The Model for Responsible Innovation can help you if:

• You are a public sector team delivering a project which contains some element of data-driven technology or AI

• You are a private sector team building an AI or data-driven tool which you plan to use for a public sector purpose, or has a significant societal footprint

The DSIT team will be running free sessions outlining the use of the tool. Please reach out to them at rtau@dsit.gov.uk to register your interest in a session.

The Goverment has also published a Responsible AI Toolkit – a toolkit for practitioners to support the responsible use of AI systems, plus a new report on Assuring a Responsible Future for AI. The Rt Hon Peter Kyle MP, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, says: "My ambition is to drive adoption of AI, ensuring it is safely and responsibly developed and deployed across Britain, with the benefits shared widely. 

"AI assurance provides the tools and techniques required to measure, evaluate, and communicate the trustworthiness of AI systems, and is essential for creating clear expectations for AI companies – unlocking widespread adoption in both the private and public sectors. A flourishing AI assurance ecosystem is critical to give consumers, industry, and regulators the confidence that AI systems work and are used as intended. AI assurance is also an economic activity in its own right — the UK’s mature assurance ecosystem for cyber security is worth nearly £4 billion to the UK economy.?

"The ‘Assuring a responsible future for AI’ report is an original publication that — for the first time — surveys the state of the AI assurance market in the UK, identifies opportunities for future growth, and sets out how the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s (DSIT) work will seize these opportunities and drive the growth of this emerging industry."