Consultation AI meets the British public at scale
A government-built consultation AI has reviewed more than 2,000 responses, completing in minutes the traditional administrative ritual of discovering that respondents have concerns.
The Consult tool, part of the Humphrey suite, examined answers to six qualitative questions in a Scottish consultation. Its themes closely resembled those found by human reviewers, although the machine completed the task without once writing “many thanks for your valuable contribution” through clenched teeth.
Experts will remain in the loop. Their role is to check the analysis, supply context and stop the software classifying every paragraph beginning “with respect” as an imminent security event.
“The machine has learned consultation language remarkably quickly,” said Belinda Preamble, Chief Officer for Listening-Shaped Activity. “It can already distinguish between serious opposition and serious opposition submitted as a PDF.”
Officials estimate that automating parts of consultation analysis could save 75,000 working days and £20 million each year. Britain will finally recover the time required to launch several thousand additional consultations about how that saving should be used.
At the Public Sentiment Warehouse, staff welcomed the assistance. Shelves had become crowded with strongly worded responses, politely worded responses and one response containing 184 footnotes plus a map.
The breakthrough means government can hear public opinion faster than ever. Whether public opinion receives a reply remains a separate digital transformation programme, currently represented by a pale blue progress bar.
Read the real story: the GOV.UK announcement about consultation AI.
