Civil servants have been invited to pitch artificial intelligence ideas in a Dragons’ Den style challenge, giving public sector innovation its most dangerous enemy yet: a panel of people who already know where the form is kept.
The Civil Service AI and Data Challenge is seeking ideas for improving government work, including tackling benefit fraud, speeding up doctor’s appointments and supporting net zero. The winner receives £50,000 in technical support, enough to build a prototype, commission a logo and discover that the necessary data belongs to another department.
Previous winners used AI and aerial images to map peatlands. The technology is now being used across England, proving that machines can identify the surface features of a landscape more efficiently than officials can identify which meeting owns them.
“I am seeking fifty thousand pounds for ten per cent of my optimism,” said Crispin Promptworthy, Deputy Visionary for Machine Readable Folders. “Our prototype turns a 47 page form into a 46 page form and a webinar.”
The challenge is open to civil servants across departments, professions and grades. Participants can submit their own ideas or join teams tackling technical problems inside the Civil Service and wider society. At last, an official with a solution to a national crisis can collaborate with the official whose calendar contains the only available appointment in March.
An experimental chatbot has already learned the essential civil service language model: agree enthusiastically, request stakeholder alignment and move the deadline into a quarter with softer lighting. It has also developed an instinctive response to the phrase “quick win”, which is to ask whether the quick win has completed its data protection assessment.
Artificial intelligence could automate repetitive tasks and help staff focus on complicated cases. The Secretariat for Human Reassurance remains confident that no machine will replace the uniquely human ability to invite 38 people to a meeting and leave with a question about branding.
The winning team will receive expert support from the event’s technology sponsor and backing from senior civil servants. Before that, its members must survive the pitch, the procurement conversation and a security review in which the laptop is asked whether it has ever known anyone abroad.
Applications close on 5 November. The entries will propose ways to improve public services, reduce bureaucracy and explain why the printer has displayed “warming up” since 2019. The printer has declined to comment because it is currently awaiting clearance from the committee responsible for approving comments from printers.
Real story: Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
