Weeknote 2.0
The week where we dive into what’s already happening
Welcome to the second edition of the Institute for Government’s weeknote on future technology in government! We really appreciated the feedback on our first note and we hope that these will continue to be an interesting and useful way to spur discussion around this topic.
This week we have been taking a thorough look at what is currently going on with future technology in Government. And what’s exciting is the clear enthusiasm for new technology and the wealth of interesting use cases that already exist in departments and agencies.
For example, blockchain is being trialled by the Food Standards Agency to track cattle movements and by the Department of Work and Pensions to help people on welfare manage their benefit payments. Thurrock Council and the Department of Transport are using deep learning and cameras mounted on bin lorries to study potholes; while the NHS is studying ways to use AI and machine learning to deliver personalised medicine.
Do you know of any exciting ways that government is using or developing future technology? We’d love to hear about it. Big or small, central or local — we’re on the hunt for good examples that can help us and others understand how future technology is changing government already, and how it will continue to change it in the future.
As ever, please get in touch — you can email the team on digital@instituteforgovernment.org.uk, or find us on Twitter here, here, here and here.
Three things that happened this week
1. Off the back of our initial exploration of what Government is doing, we’ve been writing a short explainer to be published soon that will outline what future technology already looks like in government. We’ve also started putting together a glossary of key technical terms we’ll be using throughout the project — you can read and comment on our first iteration here.
2. The Commons Public Accounts Committee published a critical report of the Government Digital Service’s Verify programme, which has struggled to find a userbase while costing millions.
picked out four challenges for other digital projects — which you can read here!3. The Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation has put out a call for evidence about online targeting and bias in algorithmic decision making, which is definitely worth keeping an eye on.
People we chatted to
- The team have been staying a bit more in-house this week, but amongst various meetings, Gavin talked data and digital transformation with Mike Rose. You might want to check out his post on ‘digitalising’ an organisation, and an older one on the relationship between culture and technology.
- Gavin and saw Tom Smith from the ONS Data Science Campus. Their report on their first two years gives a great overview of their work (and not forgetting our first-ever Data Bites presentation was about one of their projects).
- Gavin was also over at the Norwegian Embassy with several other members of the IfG to talk about various things — including how the UK Government has adopted digital technology. You can get a good potted history through our previous digital reports.
What we’re reading and thinking about
- The future of work has been in the news this week. Amber Rudd gave an important keynote on the future of the labour market. While the Economist noted how the focus of left-wing thinking is now on “ownership, the future of work and the environment”. The Centre for Social Justice has an interesting new report out on this topic. While Marcus is inherently sceptical of any recommendation to set up a Royal Commission (their recent track record is far from stellar), the other proposals about how to work with technological change, rather than against it, make a compelling argument.
- Marcus has also been reading through the back catalogue of ’ excellent AI.Westminster blog series, and Lewis has been exploring the Data Science Campus’s GitHub repository (repository of repositories? What is the collective noun for repositories?), which is full of useful resources — and hats off to them for making it all open!
- Gavin has (finally) started reading Luciano Floridi’s The Fourth Revolution, all about how changes in our information environment are changing our lives. Floridi also appears in one of the many links about AI and algorithms in Gavin’s weekly newsletter this week.
What’s coming up next week?
- Liam Fox will be in conversation with Bronwen Maddox here at the Institute on Wednesday. The Department for International Trade has been actively promoting British companies working in AI and machine learning, and FinTech on trade missions to the US. The Chancellor has said that he wants a new tech business to be founded in the UK every half hour it will be interesting to see what Dr Fox has to say about the importance of future tech to the Government’s trade strategy.
- A couple of interesting select committee sessions on Wednesday — the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy committee takes oral evidence on ‘Automation and the future of work’, while the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee hears about ‘Immersive and addictive technologies’ from a load of policy people from all the big names (YouTube, Google, Instagram…).
Any last thoughts?
Again please tell us what you think — all thoughts very welcome!
