Hello, and welcome to our fifteenth Data Policy Digest, bringing you all the latest data and AI policy developments.
A short one this time, with very little going on.
Kidding!
(Late) April Fool!
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Hello, and welcome to our fifteenth Data Policy Digest, bringing you all the latest data and AI policy developments.
A short one this time, with very little going on.
Kidding!
(Late) April Fool!
Hello, and welcome to our fourteenth Data Policy Digest, bringing you all the latest data and AI policy developments. The Budget, national insurance cuts, tax cuts, and a possible May election are just some of the topics dominating the political fiscal discourse and doubling as an SEO-friendly introduction to this fortnight’s newsletter, a blockbuster on a par with anything at this weekend’s Oscars and with more political intrigue than Super Tuesday or a day in the life of Christian Horner at Red Bull. If that doesn’t game Google, nothing will.
This is a follow-up bulletin from the People’s Panel on AI, sharing updates and insights from the last three months, featuring our policy brief on learning from the panel, video of panel members Janet and Sharif speaking at the TechUK Digital Ethics Summit, and more insights from the panel in the combined Perspectives from the AI Fringe report.
Hello, and welcome to our thirteenth (lucky for you) Data Policy Digest, bringing you all the latest data and AI policy developments. Of which there continue to be many.
Hello, and welcome to our twelfth Data Policy Digest, bringing you all the latest data and AI policy developments. Rest assured, this is one DPD that won’t use AI to swear at you. (Though may have you swearing at AI.)
We were pleased to support the research and writing of the Wales’ TUC report entitled “A snapshot of workers in Wales’ understanding and experience of AI”.
Hello, and welcome to our eleventh Data Policy Digest, bringing you all the latest data and AI policy developments.
And Happy New Year! (If it’s not too late to wish you that.) After the data and AI policy carnival of chaos that was 2023, we have a much quieter year to look forward to.
Kidding, obviously. Just the odd controversial bit of data-related legislation, a government response to the AI White Paper, more AI Summits, continued AI development at breakneck speed, the unfolding of the Post Office Horizon scandal, the small matter of a general election being called at some point and goodness knows what else to keep us busy. The Digest will be with you all the way.
Opinion
Here we have a guest blog from Margaret, a member of the People’s Panel on AI, with words shared at the 2024 AI UK Conference.
Months ago I got a text from a dear friend who works in finance, with a video she had seen on Instagram of an investor reporting on some of the things he had heard at the Davos Forum about artificial intelligence. “Everytime I see something about AI I think of you”, she said, intending for it to sound nicer than how I interpreted it, as someone who is concerned about, a bit fed up with, the hype and solutionism around it.
It has been almost 18 months since I first joined CbD, and it is crazy to look back and see there was a whole different scenario going on around data and AI.
So these are my last set (of very irregular) weeknotes. I’m heading off to be Head Campaigns at UNICEF UK. I’ll be particularly focusing over the next year on highlighting the issues around child poverty in the UK around the coming election and with a potential new government. It’s an exciting opportunity and one that gets me working on a very tangible social justice issue again (I came from Shelter) which I’m looking forward to.
The Post Office scandal has reached the mainstream, thanks to ITV’s dramatisation, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, broadcast earlier this month. The political response to the harms done to sub-postmasters due to problems with the Post Office’s Horizon system has rightly focused on correcting miscarriages of justice and providing compensation to the people affected. But there are other lessons to learn from this scandal: about how technology can go wrong and the implications for how it’s developed and embedded within wider processes; and about the rights we need to bring such errors to light, correct decisions made about us, and hold organisations accountable.
But even as the government congratulates itself on finally acting to compensate victims and quash convictions, its own Data Protection and Digital Information Bill is laying the groundwork for both making similar scandals more likely in the future, and making it even harder for campaigners to achieve justice.
Weeknotes
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