30 October 2023
Merry (AI policy) Christmas!
The bad news (maybe?) is that Warning: Graphic Content is still on pause.
But the good news is that I’ve written another Data Policy Digest for Connected by Data, with all the latest data and AI developments. With the UK government’s AI Safety Summit kicking off on Wednesday and the AI Fringe at the British Library starting today, there’s very much a focus on all things AI. It may be Hallowe’en tomorrow but it feels more like Christmas for data/AI policy wonks. (You can now sign up to the Digest directly.)
I’ll be helping to run a workshop at the AI and Society Forum on Tuesday (on what the agenda should have been for the Summit), heading to the verdict of the randomly selected People’s Panel on AI on Friday afternoon, and trying to get to a few other things during the week — hopefully see some of you there!
A few other updates since my last email:
- I gave evidence to the Covid Inquiry, who also published the 30,000 words I wrote for them on government data and digital government
- A couple of reports I worked on have been published — Doing Data Justice for the IfG and a Progressive Vision for data and AI policy at Connected by Data
- I chaired IfG events on AI at Conservative and Labour party conferences, and a Connected by Data/Fabian Society event on data and AI policy at Labour
- I was lucky enough to head to wonderful Tallinn for the Open Government Summit, helping out at a Connected by Data workshop; went to also wonderful Leeds to speak at a techUK/dxw/Leeds Digital Festival event on data and digital transformation; and I’ve also visited some more local but nonetheless interesting places
- There’s been not one but two (excellent) Data Bites, with the next one happening on 8 November (and 6 December after that)
- I’ll be hosting a dataviz workshop for Smart Thinking members in a few weeks’ time
- I’ll be at Think Data for Government on 12 December (and I also co-chaired the GovTech conference for the first time a few weeks ago)
- I’m now on BlueSky ahead of the impending implosion (surely?) of Twitter — say hello if you’re there too — and lamented the impending loss of Jamboard
- The 2024 Orwell Youth Prize is open for entries — please tell all the secondary students and teachers you know. There’s an Orwell Lecture coming up, too
- And I’ve applied for a ticket to the next (and apparently biggest ever) UKGovCamp in January, and you definitely should too. I’m speaking to Derek and Dave about pitching a session on what to do with the monthly meet-up we’ve tried to get going this year for reform-minded people in and around government (drop me an email to this address if you want to know more/have thoughts). We’re pausing that until then, but Local Digital have a meetup on 16 November in the meantime.
Have a great week, AI fringe-focused or otherwise
Gavin
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