News and views
Hello, and welcome to our 26th Data Policy Digest, bringing you all the latest data and AI policy developments.
We’ll forego the usual fun, folksy intro because DEAR GOD this is already too long (for a change, etc). A new Bill, a new advisory panel on the digital centre of government, lots on health data… To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, the only thing worse than there being far too much to talk about would be having nothing to talk about (he says, weeping into his computer keyboard).
Hello, and welcome to our 25th Data Policy Digest, bringing you all the latest data and AI policy developments.
Ah, autumn. Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness - and unhealthy, underwhelming beige buffet bites and warm white wine. Yes, several of us are heading up to Liverpool for Labour Party conference this weekend - if you are too, check out our spreadsheet of data and AI events, or drop me a line if you’d like to meet up.
Opinion
Care Full is a new organisation, founded by Hannah and Ruth, two carers. We set out to explore the role of care in a new economy and how our economy could enable us to care for ourselves, one another and the planet.
Here we have a guest blog from Margaret, part of the Public Voices in AI People’s Advisory Group, a member of the People’s Panel on AI, and previous guest blogger on Baby Boomers and AI and a speech she made at the Turing UK AI Conference.
We came to Connected by Data with a clear idea of what problems our community faced. We’d turned up to countless spaces about young people’s experiences online to find we were the only young people in the room, and the narratives being set about our experiences just weren’t in line with the lived reality of growing up online.
Late last year the team at Brickwall (who produced Connected by Data’s intro video) got in touch with us to ask if we might collaborate on a commission from the Local Government Association (LGA) to put together scripts for a series of videos intended to explain artificial intelligence. Drawing on desk research, interviews and a session at UK Gov Camp, we put together a proposed approach based on three sections: introducing AI, AI in Action, and Implementing AI.
I’ve been appointed to an external advisory panel to support the design of the “digital centre” in DSIT (currently a smooched together combination of GDS, CDDO and i.AI). I put out a call on Bluesky for reckons and pointers that has had quite the response, summarised here by Tim Paul but you should go read all the responses. I want to try here to distil some of the topics, questions and opinions around the design of public services, technology support, and what DSIT needs to do as the “digital centre”.
For a researcher who has spent a little time in the Ivory Tower, and then tried hard to find a career path escaping it, during my time at Connected by Data has been inspiring to see practical examples of how public engagement can shape fairer, more accountable systems of data and AI governance. I have to give a shout out to my favourite design lab and my favourite connected conversation which both shared different approaches to including communities in Ai decision making. This is work I hope to be doing more of, more directly, in the future.
I joined Connected by Data and my first day was an event - A Design Lab on Narratives. The lab brought together experts to address the problematic ways data is framed in media, policy, and industry, exploring the dominant “protection” and “exploitation” narratives. The participants discussed solutions, emphasising the need for collective approaches to data governance, shifting harmful narratives, and fostering collaboration for more sustainable, human-centred data practices. For me, it was a great introduction to the issues Connected by Data was tackling, as well as the team’s trademark collaborative ways of working. As my PhD research was about the ways reading fiction shapes our critical thinking, starting at Connected by Data with narratives was the perfect hook for me to move into thinking more deeply about data governance issues.
It is fitting that my last day will be an event too: All Campaigns are Data Campaigns. In the event, we will help showcase insights from five community campaigns that explore the power of data across various social justice issues like housing, health, and online safety. The event aims to share strategies for effective data-focused advocacy and provide a platform for campaigners and decision-makers to collaborate on how data governance can be better aligned with community needs. It will be a little bittersweet for me, as I will be sad to see the end of such an inspiring cohort journey, but also excited and to see how Connected by Data and each of the campaigns continues this work going forward.
In one of her weeknotes, Jeni talked about Care, which I have also been interested in from a feminist perspective. In the blog she advocates for care ethics as a framework for data governance and AI development, emphasising relationships, compassion, and context-dependent judgments. She contrasts this with utilitarianism, arguing that care ethics can foster a more just, equitable, and sustainable world by prioritising the voices, experiences, and well-being of all individuals involved, rather than focusing solely on abstract, long-term outcomes. This has stayed with me, and has become a core part of how I approach and think about AI and tech governance more broadly. And what has been lovely in working with Jeni has been seeing her put care into practice, and working at Connected by Data offers constant demonstration of how a workplace can embed care.
Overall, what I feel I have developed most strongly during my time at Connected by Data is my positionality as a researcher. I wrote about this in this blog post. In that post, I discuss my approach to research as “support as radical practice.” I believe research should centre the needs of the community and act as a form of support, not just observation or extraction. My approach focuses on co-production, where researchers and communities work together, ensuring that the communities’ voices, experiences, and priorities shape the research process and outcomes. Working with the Community Data Campaigns has really consolidated my thinking about research in this way, and I feel I am embarking on the next stage of my research journey with this as my solid basis.
The Department for Education has recently released public attitudes research on what parents and pupils think about AI in education, as part of its announcement of a £4m investment to create a dataset to support building AI tools. This is a bit of a hangover from the previous government (the work was carried out earlier in 2024), but reflective of the current government’s commitment to maximising adoption of AI across the public sector.
Before I dig into the details, I should first say that it’s fantastic to see public sector organisations carrying out public attitudes research to inform how they approach the adoption of AI. This kind of research can be used to prioritise investments, inform governance processes to address anticipated harms, and identify barriers and blockers to adoption, as well as working out how to communicate about governmental plans.
Here I want to pull out some specific insights from the research that highlight considerations for how technology is rolled out for public services, namely about profit sharing; schools as trusted decision makers; and points about equity and choice. Then I’m going to discuss some lessons that should be taken into future similar public engagement exercises, particularly about shifting understanding and acceptance of technology; consulting teachers and workers; and the overall approach we need of “you said, we listened”.
Weeknotes
Need help?
Want to get involved?