Can AI And Machine Learning Help Create The Government Of The Future?

Artificial intelligence will take care of a lot of jobs in future, like for example running the country.

Artificial intelligence is everywhere. The discipline, which up until recently was restricted to academic research and applications, is finally becoming part of everyday life. Ask anyone. They might not be able to tell you what it is, but they will know that it’s permeated all sorts of industries.

In education, platforms like Century are helping teachers provide more personalised education programmes and receive feedback. In the legal service industry, AI is helping lawyers to do legal searches and draft the best standard documents.

In travel, companies are developing fully autonomous systems that diagnose potential problems for driverless cars and identify the most logical routes.

But what about AI in government? Business Minister Claire Perry announced £84 million of funding for AI and robotics research only recently. This was shortly after a government report explained that AI could add an additional £630bn to the UK economy, with the UK positioned to become one of the market leaders within the arena.

So, what is the potential of this technology when applied in government? Does the future look promising with it included? What role will it play? The possibilities are endless and will only ever evolve and develop with time. However, here are my initial thoughts on this.

AI technologies can be particularly useful within the area in government that concerns administrative work. Why? Think about it – how much does the government currently spend on staff?

In December 2017, 5,350,000 million people worked in the UK public sector. Many of these roles are administrative and require hours spent on mechanical tasks.

According to Deloitte, low-investment AI (which speeds human tasks up by 20%) could free up 96.7 million human hours in government, while high investment AI (which speeds human tasks up by 200%) could save 1.2 billion human hours in government.

This could have potential savings of between $3.3 billion and $41.1 billion, or more likely, the workforce would be utilised in different jobs within the busy governmental administration.

Once administrative burden is reduced, the money can be spent on developing other AI-based government technologies to improve other weaknesses in the system, say for example healthcare.

We’re all aware of how overstretched the NHS is right now. AI is one way that it could run smoother. NHS leaders have said that patients’ illnesses could soon be diagnosed using AI.

But it’s not just diagnosis that can be improved with AI – artificial intelligence technologies can collect shared data which can create a “next-generation NHS” according to government officials.

Government software and websites need to be smooth-running and glitch-free, considering they serve an entire population.