Implications of the use of artificial intelligence in public governance: A systematic literature review and a research agenda

He is currently a senior advisor to Acumen Public Affairs in Brussels, and an adjunct professor of strategic and political communications at American University in Washington. He is an advisor/member to Diplomats Without Borders, and is a mentor at the Techstars start-up accelerator. Within the public sector, conversational AI has the potential to augment and even fully automate aspects of citizen services by providing 24/7 support for everyday administrative tasks. More advanced copilots can also assist public employees in their day-to-day work, reducing process ambiguity and friction points. With the ability to analyze large volumes of data, AI can provide tailored services based on their individual needs and preferences.

Investments in AI have led to transformative advances now impacting our everyday lives, including mapping technologies, voice-assisted smart phones, handwriting recognition for mail delivery, financial trading, smart logistics, spam filtering, language translation, and more. AI advances are also providing great benefits to our social wellbeing in areas such as precision medicine, environmental sustainability, education, and public welfare. Use AI to identify patterns, impacts, and mitigation options for challenges related to public health and climate change. Of government organizations are still at the initial or developing digital maturity stages. However, as with any other project, AI adoption poses challenges that the public sector must overcome.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence – The Bottom Line

✅Collaborations between governments and AI industry players will foster innovation and accelerate the development of tailored solutions. Efficiency and cost reduction are critical goals in governance, and AI presents opportunities to streamline operations and automate administrative tasks. Two notable aspects within this scope are the use of chatbots and virtual assistants for citizen support, and the provision of personalized services and recommendations. AI has the potential to revolutionize service delivery in governance, fostering better citizen engagement. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a transformative force in various sectors, and its potential impact on government and governance is no exception.

• In today’s fast-paced world, government agencies are constantly challenged with making crucial decisions that have far-reaching impacts on their constituents.
• This is important as societal acceptance will take time and success stories of ethical AI need attention and celebration to win over the sceptical consumer.
• However, as we are progressing fast with a mechanistic, mathematical-proven, notion of fairness and de-biasing of data, one could prove that the AI system could discriminate less than humans.

We all know that Artificial Intelligence (AI) has arrived and has the potential to transform government IT. While many agencies are beginning to explore new AI capabilities, it’s always good to have a clear picture of the benefits and concerns of this new innovation frontier. (a)  There is established, within the Executive Office of the President, the White House Artificial Intelligence Council (White House AI Council). The function of the White House AI Council is to coordinate the activities of agencies across the Federal Government to ensure the effective formulation, development, communication, industry engagement related to, and timely implementation of AI-related policies, including policies set forth in this order. (iv)   take such steps as are necessary and appropriate, consistent with applicable law, to support and advance the near-term actions and long-term strategy identified through the RFI process, including issuing new or updated guidance or RFIs or consulting other agencies or the Federal Privacy Council. (v)    establish an office to coordinate development of AI and other critical and emerging technologies across Department of Energy programs and the 17 National Laboratories.

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I encourage my fellow local government officials to explore the potential of AI and to start thinking about how it can be used to improve the way we serve our citizens. The combination of e-governance and artificial intelligence can greatly improve the accessibility of government services. The use of AI technology allows governments to simplify procedures and offer citizens more efficient and convenient services.

(iii)  ensure that such efforts are guided by principles set out in the NIST AI Risk Management Framework and United States Government National Standards Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technology. (iii)  Within 180 days of the date of this order, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), in coordination with the Director of OMB, shall develop guidance on the use of generative AI for work by the Federal workforce. (iii)  The Director of NSF shall use the results of the United States-United Kingdom PETs Prize Challenge to inform the approaches taken, and opportunities identified, for PETs research and adoption. (i)    Within 120 days of the date of this order, the Director of NSF, in collaboration with the Secretary of Energy, shall fund the creation of a Research Coordination Network (RCN) dedicated to advancing privacy research and, in particular, the development, deployment, and scaling of PETs. The RCN shall serve to enable privacy researchers to share information, coordinate and collaborate in research, and develop standards for the privacy-research community.

In the government and public services (GPS) industry, AI adoption and maturity levels tend to vary depending on the government agencies, their existing infrastructure’s reliance on legacy systems, and workforce fluency. Building one, through a government-directed model development and deployment program, would require a lot of effort—and the greatest challenges in developing public A.I. Following the guidance of “Deep Throat” of Watergate fame, in this new series of articles, we follow the federal trail of money to understand the federal market for AI work, the hardware, software, and services being purchased. We also track the key players who allocate the money (legislators), spend the money (program managers), and receive the money (vendors). Taken together, this series provides a comprehensive look at federal IT spending, its direction, and its key players. AI’s capacity to take in and process massive amounts of data in real time means organizations can implement near-instantaneous monitoring capabilities to alert them to issues, recommend actions and, in some cases, initiate a response, according to experts.

A nonprofit board controls OpenAI, an unusual governance structure that made it possible to push out the CEO. This pioneering set of intergovernmental standards on AI stresses the importance of ensuring that AI systems embody human-centred values, such as fairness, transparency, explainability and accountability, among others. The OECD.AI Policy Observatory serves as the orgaisational lead in advancing OECD’s AI-related efforts, including the adoption of the OECD AI Principles.

We are more than capable of harnessing AI for justice, security, and opportunity for all. To learn how AI can improve and automate processes at your government agency/org, simply book a free demo. To harness the benefits of AI in government, investing in skills and workforce development is vital. Governments must equip their employees with the necessary expertise to leverage AI technologies effectively and responsibly.

They think much faster than humans and perform multiple tasks at a time with accurate results. They can even handle tedious repetitive jobs easily with the help of AI algorithms. H2O.ai has grown alongside financial services firms, who are not only our biggest customers but also our biggest investors, and it is evident in the platform today.

HEALTHCARE

One application of artificial intelligence is a robot, which is displacing occupations and increasing unemployment (in a few cases). Therefore, some claim that there is always a chance of unemployment as a result of chatbots and robots replacing humans. Some of the most technologically advanced companies engage with users using digital assistants, which eliminates the need for human personnel. Some chatbots are built in a way that makes it difficult to tell whether we are conversing with a human or a chatbot.

It isn’t clear whether this is an unavoidable flaw of how they work, or whether it can be corrected for. Democracy could be undermined if citizens trust technologies that just make stuff up at random, and the companies trying to sell these technologies can’t be trusted to admit their flaws. AI’s monitoring capabilities can be effective in other areas, such as in enterprise cybersecurity operations where large amounts of data need to be analyzed and understood.

In addition, knowledge-sharing plays a crucial role in ensuring that the benefits of AI are maximized across the government sector. Several state governments have begun adopting AI/ML capabilities to improve and support the services they provide to their citizens, including areas such as public transit, modernizing DMV capabilities, and helping make intelligence decisions for enrollment analytics. However, there is also a darker future that could potentially result if this approach is taken. As discussed previously, the U.S. is significantly behind in AI development and, in particular, trails China by a substantial margin.

For example, public sector agencies can make better use of data by migrating certain technology systems to the cloud and infuse it with AI. AI-powered tools hold the potential to help with pattern detection in large stores of data, and also be able to write computer programs. This could benefit cost optimization and also strengthen cybersecurity, as it can help detect threats quickly. This way, instead of seeking hard-to-find skills, agencies can reduce their skills gap and tap into evolving talent. On top of that, Finland has a uniquely well functioning data governance infrastructure, exemplified by MyData11

– a world class model for personal data management that offers individuals access to and control over the data collected about them. Canada’s ambition to shape global AI policy is realized also through international initiatives.

Easily fit and solve forecasting problems with unique feature engineering and autoML capabilities specifically designed to handle time series data. See how predictions are generated, and easily build forecasts across many categories such as individual skus, product hierarchy and more. The United Nations has urged governments around the world to learn lessons on how to respond to disasters as it warned action to better protect people from major catastrophes had stalled. Benefit fraud at the hands of criminal gangs cost the Department of Work and Pensions nearly £2.1 billion in 2016, a rise of £200 million in just one year. The losses to fraud equate to the entire budget of the Foreign Office, which is £1.1 billion annually.

Another option is to create a regulatory body specifically for AI which would be responsible for licensing and monitoring AI technologies. This could have a range of powers, such as the ability to licence AI technologies, to ensure that AI is being used safely and responsibly, to investigate complaints, and to impose sanctions on those who break the rules. A third option is to develop a code of conduct for businesses using AI; this could cover areas such as data handling, privacy, and accountability.

But the whys, and hows of BigTech regulation are different from those of AI regulation. Regulation of BigTech is a detailed topic on its own and let’s limit ourselves to AI regulation here. What is clear is that governments need to think very carefully about how they should react to the AI revolution. They need to develop a framework for regulating AI, which will protect society while not holding back its development. We could encounter issues with the brittleness of AI systems, dependencies on data, and configurations that constantly change in order to keep improving AI’s performance (a key advantage of Machine Learning is that it constantly learns and improves its current state).

Read more about Benefits Of AI For Government here.