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The Prime Minister said in a speech earlier this week that the UK should be one of the “great AI super powers” and that AI offers the chance “to radically improve public services,” but how can the AI Opportunities Plan benefit the emergency services and why should they care?
The government published the independent AI Opportunities Plan to a flurry of headlines earlier this week, as the PM used his visit to see researchers at University College London to confirm that he would be taking forward its 50 recommendations.
The plan was written by the government’s new AI Opportunities Adviser, Matt Clifford and at 26 pages long and full of technical terminology, it’s a dense read, so here are my three key takeaways for the emergency services.
Data rules
Data continues to be at the heart of successful adoption of AI, so much so that the plan includes a proposal to create a National Data Library containing five “high impact datasets.” It may include giving wider access to NHS data, as the PM said the library will provide “safe access to the unique resource of our NHS for research.”
“We will responsibly, securely and ethically unlock the value of public sector data assets to support AI research and innovation through the creation of the National Data Library and the government’s wider data access policy.”
Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer.
The National Fire Chiefs Council says it has been looking at the potential for AI for some time. Last year it published a framework Ethical Adoption of AI in Fire and Rescue, coproduced with fire and rescue services. It contains a simple set of seven principles that underpin its approach to using AI, providing a transparent basis on which to work with suppliers in this space as they seek to improve service delivery.
“We are keen to work with the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology and the proposed new function within Government to ensure that we are at the forefront of these developments and that the UK fire and rescue service continues to be seen as world leading.”
National Fire Chiefs Council.
The government response to the Plan says that there will be “strong privacy-preserving safeguards” in place although the detail of how this will work is not yet available. There is no reference to data quality, data skills and data sharing, all key facets of data infrastructure that are critical for successful use of AI.
On the other side of this, NHS Shared Business Services is working up a new Healthcare AI Solutions Framework Agreement to give NHS and other public services access to a range of AI healthcare solutions including predictive analytics for prevention and improvements in operational efficiency.
I asked the Association Ambulance Chief Executives (AACE) what they thought about the plan. Its MD, Anna Parry said that they are developing a national digital strategy centred on improving the patient experience, “We see many potential applications for AI that we will be exploring thoroughly over the coming months.,” she added.
There is plenty of data in the public sector and while NHS data is a vast chunk of it, the principles of accessing data in a policing context come with all manner of ethical issues that forces contend with every day.
“Responsible use is at the heart of policing’s of AI and we are very clear that that our use of AI will remain accountable, transparent and explainable as explained in our covenant. Through this we aim to deliver a service, assisted by AI, that is trusted by the communities we serve.”
T/CC Alex Murray, NPCC AI lead.
The Guardian said in its editorial the day after the plan was published that, “Governments must cut through industry noise and prioritise responsible AI governance.” It is absolutely right.
Regulators and productivity
Regulation is in the spotlight in this plan. “When it comes to regulation – we will be pro-growth and pro-innovation,” said the PM referring to regulation of AI but in the blue light world, HMICFRS and CQC provide scrutiny and assurance. Recommendation 28 says that the government should “require all regulators to publish annually how they have enabled innovation and growth driven by AI in their sector.”
While HMICFRS is an inspectorate and not a regulator, Chief HMI Sir Andy Cooke has long argued for his organisation to have more powers akin to a regulator. In the last State of Police report, he also said “Forces have many opportunities to improve their productivity. Technology in particular offers forces the potential to do more with less.” Perhaps their future inspections – as well as those of ambulance service trusts by the Care Quality Commission, will have specific questions about AI use to improve productivity.
“AI should become core to how we think about delivering services, transforming citizens’ experiences, and improving productivity.”
Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer.
The AI Opportunities Plan includes references to tools to achieve productivity gains, such as automated threat and anomaly detection which it says is already being “responsibly deployed by police forces across the country and used to clean up social media.”
The plan also refers to the use of AI assistants – chat bots and the like. We talked about some of this in a recent EST webinar where Matt Palmer from NEC Software Solutions said he could see the value in AI in the control room, so that the right contact gets through and what can best dealt with elsewhere efficiently redirected using technology to relieve pressure on staff and improve wellbeing along the way.
“The adoption of high-performing, trustworthy AI at scale will be critical to the government
fulfilling the five missions” says the plan and with one of the missions focused on safer streets, the spotlight will fall on police to see what it is doing in this space.
Leadership
Inevitably change requires leadership and it will be interesting to see who the AI lead will be for the safer streets mission – the plan recommends that doing this will “help identify where AI could be a solution within the mission setting, considering the user needs from the outset.”
Whoever that is will want to work closely with the national bodies, including the National Police Chiefs’ Council. Its AI lead is Temporary Chief Constable Alex Murray who commented that the plan represents “a generational opportunity to embrace AI technologies.” He thinks the plan aligns will policing priorities including improved public safety, threat mitigation and operational efficiency.
Ideally the leaders of the three blue lights should come together to have a joined up approach to how they will use AI to deliver services and improve efficiency. Maybe that’s already happening but if it is, its activity should be transparent and visible to all of us so we can see what that thinking looks like and be reassured about the checks and balances along the way.
While the national plan says rather grandly that “AI may well be the most important technology of our time” it does acknowledge it comes with risks and uncertainty. It does not dwell on the climate risks of having so much computing power requiring masses of cooling and power to keep it going.
“This will require a whole of government commitment, with senior and visible leadership and a relentless focus on driving progress. This is no small task.
“Nevertheless, the benefits are likely to be transformational, not just to support economic growth, but to people’s lives across the whole of the UK.”
AI Opportunities Plan conclusion.
With 50 recommendations to chew over, the PM has already said that he is committed to take them all forward, adding that he is “determined the UK becomes the best place to start and scale an AI business.”
To read more about AI and the emergency services, read Data infrastructure is critical to successful implementation of AI in the emergency services or watch the EST Data Conversations webinar on catch up.
