Connected by data

Data Policy Digest

Gavin Freeguard ▪ Mar 7, 2024

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.

People’s Panel on AI Bulletin 7 - Perspectives from the Fringe, Learning from the Panel, TechUK Digital Ethics Summit and more

Tim Davies ▪ Feb 27, 2024

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.

Data Policy Digest

Gavin Freeguard ▪ Feb 21, 2024

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.

Speech at AI UK Conference by member of People's Panel on AI

Guest ▪ Mar 19, 2024

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.

Reclaiming the Narrative

Maria Luciano ▪ Mar 5, 2024

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.

Maria's Leaving Blog

Maria Luciano ▪ Feb 29, 2024

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.

Jonathan's Leaving Blog

Jonathan Smith ▪ Feb 26, 2024

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.

What does the Post Office scandal teach us about data and AI regulation?

Jeni Tennison ▪ Jan 17, 2024

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 are a combination of updates and personal reflection written on a routine basis